Fort Loramie's Justin Hoying (10) tags out Ottawa Hills' Will Longhorne (11) during the fifth inning of the Division IV state baseball semifinal Thursday. Ottawa Hills lost 13-1.
COLUMBUS--Ottawa Hills' baseball season may have lasted longer than many expected, but the Green Bears' Division IV state semifinal today ended ahead of schedule.
Ninth-ranked Fort Loramie (29-3) took advantage of the Bears' failure to turn a potential inning-ending double play, producing a five-run rally in the top of the second inning that paved the way to a 13-1 victory at Huntington Park.
The game was abbreviated to five innings by the 10-run mercy rule.
Unranked Ottawa Hills (19-11), was held to two hits by Redskins started Justin Hoying (13-0) and reliever Jared Albers.
The Bears' only run came in the third inning on starting pitcher J.J. Buckey's RBI triple to right-center that scored Rohan Shah. The other Ottawa Hills hit was Will Longthorne's fifth-inning single.
Brad Frilling's two-out, two-run double to right-center in the Redskins' extended second inning proved to be the game-winning hit, and Fort Loramie added runs on a Mitch
Raterman double and a Mitch Boerger single to grab a 5-0 lead.
The Redskins broke things wide open with six more runs on three hits in the fourth against Buckey (8-2), who helped their cause with two walks and two hit batsmen.
Fort Loramie, the 2007 D-IV state champion, lost in the 2008 state semifinals.
Ottawa Hills was making its eighth trip to state, including its seventh under veteran coach Chris Hardman. The Bears were Class A state champions in 1986, and finished as D-IV runners-up in 1992, 1996 and 2001.