Bellmont charged back from a 9-0 deficit to make things interesting Thursday at Homestead, but ultimately fell 9-8 in a game between two old NHC rivals on a beautiful night in Fort Wayne.
The Spartans hit Bellmont starter Aidan Zimmerman hard and knocked him out of the game in the fourth inning. Luke Neiswonger homered in the third to make it 5-0 and after Ethan Miller entered the game and took the mound for coach Montgomery’s team, Homestead kept hitting.
Miller could not finish the fourth inning, allowing five runners to reach and then plunking leadoff hitter Caleb Bradford to load the bases with two outs. Keagan Martin was called into the game to pitch and he held the Braves in the game, getting out of the jam and then working through the fifth and the sixth while allowing just two hits and no runs.
Despite the 9-0 deficit, Bellmont did not concede. They caught a break when Griffin Tinkel made an error and then hit Andrew James to put two on with one out.
Singles by Jack Scheumann and Eli Laurent put three runs on the board for the visitors, but Tinkel got an important second out, freezing Austin Christner with a strike on the corner on a 2-2 pitch.
Tinkel walked the next two batters to load the bases and Dylan Velez hit a ground ball to third too hot for Mason Weaver to handle and two more runs scored to make it 9-5.Â
Another error and a passed ball resulted in three more runs in the sixth, with the big base hit coming off the bat of freshman Oliver Werling to draw the Braves within a run.
Needing one more to knot the game at nine, Vergara led off the seventh with a walk, then took second on a passed ball and went to third on a bunt by Gavin Krull. That left the Braves with two opportunities to drive in the tying run but Homestead won the ballgame with consecutive strikeouts.