Cavaliers pull away from Bulldogs

CELINA - Freshman Reece Dellinger pitched four solid innings and Coldwater scored the majority of its runs after the fourth inning in beating Celina 9-3 in non-conference baseball action at CAPT Baseball Complex at Montgomery Field on Monday.

The win is the ninth straight for the Cavaliers as they improved to 9-3 on the season. Celina drops back to .500 at 6-6.

Dellinger, who made his varsity debut with four scoreless innings against Jay County, scattered six hits and a walk to earn the win. Jake Hemmelgarn pitched two innings of scoreless baseball and Will Broering retired the side in order in the seventh to close out the game.

"Reece did a good job on back-to-back Mondays," said Coldwater coach Brian Harlamert. "He gave us four innings and got the win."

Coldwater got the scoring going in the top of the second after Celina starter Ethan Piper got two quick outs. Piper hit Payton Goodwin with a pitch. Goodwin stole second and then Alex Wourms singled. Goodwin scored on a delayed double steal with Wourms later scoring on an error.

Piper led off the bottom of the third with a single and went to third on a double by Grant Wagner. Piper scored on Parker Maurer's groundout. Bransen Miller followed with an RBI single to tie the game.

But the Bulldogs got just one more run, coming on an RBI single by Piper to score Kyle Stein. Hemmelgarn came on and allowed just a single to Maurer in his two innings of work, followed by Broering's 1-2-3 seventh.

Coldwater's bats got warmed up in that time. The Cavs scored two runs in the top of the fourth to regain the lead as Zack McKibben had a sacrifice fly and then Austin Riethman hit an RBI single.

Coldwater added a run in the fifth and sixth inning before plating three more in the seventh.

"Offensively, we weren't great early," said Harlamert. "But we got some runs. We ran the bases well (11 stolen bases)."

As the game went on, Celina's defense struggled. The Bulldogs made six errors in the game.

"You'll have days like that," said Celina coach Andy Mikesell. "If you have to get those games out of your system, Monday non-league games is where you'll do it. We know we're capable of better. We knew how to do it and didn't do it. We were flat. I take (responsibility) for a lot of that as we took Saturday and Sunday off.. … We'll be all right."

Riethman went 3 for 5 with an RBI. Jacob Wenning added two hits

Piper and Maurer each had two hits for Celina.  

Both teams are in league play today. Coldwater hosts Delphos St. John's and Celina welcomes Bath to Montgomery Field.