Yellow Jackets rally for victory over Lake, 9-2

8-run 6th inning propels Perrysburg past Lake to open season

Perrysburg pitcher A.J. Stockwell throws against Lake on Tuesday.

Perrysburg opened the baseball season on a good note Tuesday at Lake.

It came at the expense of the host Flyers on a partly sunny and windy afternoon.

The Yellow Jackets trailed the Flyers by a run when they rallied for eight runs on six hits and a couple errors during the sixth inning to collect a 9-2 victory.

GALLERY: Yellow Jackets win opener

"It's always nice after being in the gym for two months to come out and get a win," Perrysburg coach Dave Hall said, of the season-opening ballgame.

Lake owned a 2-1 lead when Flyers left-hander Brad Ackerman ran into trouble in the sixth after holding the Yellow Jackets hitless during his first two innings on the mound after relieving starter Jayce Vancena.

Ackerman allowed five consecutive hits to start the sixth, including back-to-back run-scoring singles by Chaz Westfall and A.J. Stockwell, respectively, to give the Yellow Jackets a 3-2 lead.

Seth Durham walked with the bases loaded for an RBI and Steve Winzeler drove in another run to make it 6-2 before Ackerman was replaced on the mound by Cody Witt.

The Yellow Jackets scored three more runs on a couple of errors before Witt could get out of the inning.

"I thought we made some adjustments with their pitcher," Hall said, "but we didn't really show a lot of base hits against them.

"But with this wind, to be able to put the ball in play, it was just fun to be out here again."

Perrysburg right-hander Mark Delas looked steady for most of the contest. The Yellow Jackets senior never really showed signs of tiring, as he closed out the game by limiting the Flyers to two runs on six hits.

Delas, who had a single and scored a run in the sixth, said the late-game rally and his team's defense helped him remain calm and collected on the mound on a day when strong winds could play tricks on fielders trying to catch pop-ups and flyballs.

The Flyers did get to Delas early in the contest with a run in the second and another in the fourth to take a 2-1 lead.

After Perrysburg scored a run in the first inning to take the early leard, Lake tied the score in the second on Anthony Pratt's two-out, run-scoring base hit. His single brought home Ackerman, who had reached base with a base hit.

The Flyers took a one-run lead in the fourth when Connor Bowen, Vancena, and Ackerman led off the inning with consecutive base hits. Bowen scored on Ackerman's second hit of the game.

With no outs, Lake was in good position to add more runs in the fourth, but Delas worked his way out of trouble by striking out the next two batters he faced and getting the final hitter in the inning to ground out.

"We just didn't make plays we're capable of making down the road," Lake coach Greg Wilker said.

The Flyers coach thought it was good experience to finally get a game in.

"We just had that one bad inning when we gave up six or seven outs right there," Wilker said. "Like I told them, you can't do that against a good team like Perrysburg."

Contact Donald Emmons at: demmons@theblade.com, 419-724-6302 or on Twitter @DemmonsBlade.