Spanish Springs overcame a five-run deficit to force extra baseball in the first game, but could not score in the eighth or ninth innings and watched Wooster capture the victory. Tied at 8-8, Wooster’s Jordan Lewis drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the ninth. He was balked to second. An intentional walk and another walk saturated the sacks with Colts. After two strikeouts, Lewis wound up scoring the game-winning run on a slow roller into the hole between shortstop and third.
Trailing 7-2 after four innings in the opener, Spanish Springs rallied to stay in contention. The Cougars outscored their hosts 6-1 in the final three frames. That pulled the two teams into the 8-8 deadlock and forced extra innings.
Spanish Springs started to cut into the Wooster lead in the fifth. Jake Bray walked and Justin Agliolo singled. Both came plateward after an Adam Miller single and a Davis Murphy RBI fielder’s choice.
Wooster got a run back in the bottom of inning five to lead 8-4, but the Cougars pushed across two more in the top of the sixth. Anthony Vierra one-hopped an 0-2 pitch over the left-field fence for a leadoff ground-rule double. He scored on a Brandon Mathis single. Mathis scored later in the inning when Miller’s bleeder up the middle had just enough legs to squirt between Colts infielders for a single.
In the top of the seventh, Garrett Moore singled with one out for Spanish Springs. It looked like the game might end in seven innings as Vierra struck out for the second out, but Mathis deposited a long fly ball beyond the right-field fence to knot the game at eight runs apiece.
“Given how much we were down and that we were able to come back against a really good pitcher is a bright spot,” Spanish Springs assistant coach Ben Hofmann said. “To battle back and get the two-run homer in the seventh was just outstanding.”
Wooster got to SSHS starter DJ Ponte for seven runs through four innings, but Alex Vetter came on in the fifth for the Cougars and slowed down the Wooster offense. Vetter, who struggled in a losing effort Tuesday against Damonte Ranch, tossed two and 2-3 innings of relief, allowing just one run to help Spanish Springs get back in the game.
The Cougars were done in by giving up five runs to Wooster in the first inning.
“We’ve been having trouble over the last week with giving up one big inning and a lot of times it’s the first inning,” Hofmann said. “I don’t know if we need to go back and look at how we’re warming up or what.”
There weren’t many bright spots for Spanish Springs in Game 2. Wooster’s Jordan Lewis allowed just two second-inning runs to the visiting Cougars en route to an easy win. Lewis tossed a complete-game, scattering six hits while striking out nine and walking one.
“We just did not have very good at bats,” Hofmann said. “Lewis made us miss with a lot of good off-speed stuff and he mixed in a good fastball. We didn’t square up on anything.”
The Colts put up a trio of runs in the first inning only to see Spanish Springs answer with its pair an inning later. Davis Murphy doubled and scored on a Tyler DiPietro double. DiPietro then scored on a wild pitch, accounting for the SSHS offense.
The Cougars fell to 3-8 overall and 1-5 in the HDL.
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