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DELPHOS — It was always the dream of St. John’s senior guard Curtis Geise to play basketball at the next level since he was a youngster.
That dream was fulfilled Tuesday morning when he signed a national letter-of-intent to play the sport at Capital University in Bexley.

“This is something I always wanted to do since I was little. I’m glad I have the chance to achieve it,” Geise said.

That understood, this was not an easy decision, by any means. “It was a long process and it was hard. There were a lot of schools that showed interest,” he explained. “All of the Ohio Athletic Conference schools were in the running, as well as Saginaw Valley State; they were the only Division II school that showed interest. It came down to Capital was in Columbus, which excites me because it’s not too far away and yet it is, as well as they had the academic program — biology pre-med — I want to get into.

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DELPHOS — Both St. John’s and Kalida graduated a ton of seniors from last spring’s baseball teams, meaning both were beginning 2013 with a lack of experienced players.

Both needed simply to get at-bats and innings in the field and on the mound but last week’s rainy weather interrupted their progress.
On a pleasant Monday night at Stadium Park, the Wildcats went up 5-0 in the first 1 1/2 and pounded out 15 hits to grab their first win of the season, 9-6, in a non-league clash.

The Wildcats (1-3) were led at the plate by Kyle Kehres (4-for-4, 3 runs batted in), Austin Swift (3-for-3, 3 runs scored) and Brent Hovest (3-for-4, 3 runs, 2 RBIs). Adam Knueve scored twice.

The right-handed Kehres (1-1) went the first 5-plus frames on the mound, ceding six hits, five earned runs, hitting three, walking two, two wild pitches and fanning two. Senior Kyle Landin came on in relief and threw two frames, giving up two hits, an earned tally, two wild pitches, one hit batter and one strikeout.
“It seems like we take one step forward and two steps back. When we get good defense, we don’t seem to score any runs; we can’t quite put it together yet,” St. John’s coach Ryan Warnecke said. “With so many new faces, we just need to get playing time right now but the weather is really causing us trouble. We fell behind tonight and had to battle uphill the entire way.”

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RURAL MIDDLE POINT — The Lincolnview Lancers faced off against the Jefferson Wildcats in baseball on Monday night at Lincolnview High School.
The Lancers used a strong pitching performance from Eli Farmer to win the game 7-2.

The Wildcats managed just two hits through the first four innings; both were singles to lead off the inning by Ross Thompson and Drew Kortokrax.

The Lancers got on the board early in the game with three runs in the first inning. Nick Leeth reached base by a walk to start the inning. Later in the inning, Matt Oechsle singled and came around to score on an Austin Leeth triple to give the Lancers a 3-0 lead.

Lincolnview loaded the bases in the bottom of the second frame but Zach Ricker (4 innings, 4 runs, 4 hits, 3 walks, 1 hit batter, 6 strikeouts) struck out two Lancer batters to strand all three runs.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Nick Leeth tripled and Kyle Williams picked up an RBI when he groundout to the third baseman, which allowed Leeth to score and make the game 4-0, Lancers.

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MIDDLE POINT - Lincolnview took advantage of 10 Jefferson errors to score 11 unearned runs in a 13-1 rout of the Lady Wildcats Monday afternoon.
It was the Northwest Conference opener for both teams, leaving the Lancers at 4-0 overall and 1-0 in the conference. Jefferson is 0-6 and 0-1.

The home team pushed across four runs, one earned, in the bottom of the first inning without benefit of a ball out of the infield. The only hits of the inning came on a bunt by leftfielder Autumn Procter and a roller to the first-base side by second baseman Kaitlyn Brant. Three other Lancers reached base on errors.

Lincolnview notched another unearned run in the second. Rightfielder Julia Thatcher struck out but reached when the third strike was dropped and the throw to first went awry. She stole second and third, then came in on a squeeze by Procter.

It became 8-0 after three. The Lancers’ three runs (1 earned) in the third was started by a leadoff double to the base of the right-field fence by shortstop Bailey Neate, the first ball off a Lancer bat to reach the outfield. The other hit in that inning was a bouncer through the third/short hole by Thatcher. Two walks, two passed balls and two Wildcat errors also contributed.

Lincolnview  put  the  game into run-rule territory at 13-0 with five runs, one earned, in the fourth. The only hit in that inning was a  high  pop  fly single  to shallow left-center by catcher Lauren Calvert. Jefferson committed three more errors in that inning. Two walks, a hit batsman and three wild pitches also aided the Lancer cause.

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OTTOVILLE - After a week of nearly five inches of rain, roads closed and cooler temperatures, things seemed to get back to normal again as the Continental Pirates traveled to Ottoville to take on the Big Green in their Putnam County League baseball matchup Monday.
The Big Green led throughout the contest only to see the Pirates come back but ultimately fall short in extra innings 6-4.

Pirates head coach Terry Dockery brought with him a very young — often playing several freshmen — but an aggressive team both at the plate and on the bases.
In the first inning, the Pirates mounted a rally after a throwing error by the Big Green shortstop that sent freshman Terry Dockery to second base. Tyler Dockery singled to left field but the Big Green stopped the threat when Terry Dockery was thrown out at the plate trying to score.

In the bottom of the first inning, senior Derek Schimmoeller led off with a walk and subsequently moved to second on a wild pitch by Pirates’ starting pitcher Luke Sullivan. Schimmoeller came home with the first run of the game on a run-producing single by senior Jacob Turnwald.

The Pirates tied the game 1-1 in the second inning on singles by Saige Deleon, Gabe Williams, Cody Etter and a run-producing hit by Sullivan.

The game remained tied until the bottom of the fourth inning when senior Bryan Hohlbein led off the Ottoville inning with a double down the left-field line. He advanced to third after a third strike on sophomore Joel Beining eluded the Pirates’ catcher and scored the Big Green’s second run on a wild pitch.