By Mathew Lee

In the district finals in Warsaw, No. 2 ranked Cambridge (24-5) faced off against West Holmes.

With a championship on the line, both teams threw their aces, who each held ERA’s below 1.00 coming into the game.

West Holmes started junior lefty Gabe Snyder came into the game with a 7-0 record and a 0.94 ERA while Cambridge’s ace Ben Standiford came in with an 8-0 record and an ERA 0.98.

West Holmes wasted little time jumping on the hard throwing righty who was touching 87 on the gun.

With one out in the top of the 1^st, junior Vaden Wood drew a walk. Senior Joey Gonzalez hit a shot over the right fielder’s head for a triple to drive in the 1^st run. Junior Keaton Leppex drove in Gonzalez with a line drive single back up the middle. Snyder followed with a line drive single of his own. After walking sophomore Butch Baird to load the bases, Standiford was able settle down and rely more on his breaking ball as he struck out Dial and Jones to stop the threat and leave the bases loaded with West Holmes in front 2-0

Cambridge got to Snyder as well in the 1^st.

With one out, Mount Union recruit, Tanner Roller drew a walk, which was followed by a single from Muskingum recruit Jimmy Antalis. Snyder was able to get unsigned senior Rylee Rogers to pop up for the second out but sophomore Trevor Hardesty lined a RBI single to score Roller and make it a 2-1 game. 

West Holmes was able to get to Standiford once again in the third.

Gonzalez led off with another shot to right field, but this time off the bottom of the fence for a stand up double. Snyder followed that with his second hit of the game to put runners on the corners. Senior Cody Dial responded with his own single to drive in Gonzalez. After getting Baird to pop up for the second out, freshman Levi Jones hit a sharp ground ball that was misplayed at short allowing Snyder to score to make it a 4-1 game.

Cambridge made the move to the bullpen and brought hard throwing lefty in RJ Endy.

After he walked the first batter to load the bases, he was able to strike out Mason James to stop thwart the West Holmes attack.

The score stayed 4-1 until the top of the 7^th.

With junior Dillon Sunnafrank on the mound for Cambridge, James drilled a one-out single. Wood proceeded to pop up for the second out. Gonzalez then lined a single right back up the middle for his fourth hit of the game to put runners on 1^st and 2^nd. Leppex then hit a screaming line drive up the middle to score James from second. As centerfielder, Tyler Ford came up to throw he fell to the ground with an injury. Before the play was stopped, Gonzalez came all the way from 1^st base to score as Leppex went to 3^rd base. With West Holmes ahead 6-1, Ford was carried off the field and later carted off on a stretcher in an apparent injury to his left leg.

Snyder was in control the entire game. His fastball consistently was sitting 83-85 and his off speed pitches were effective. The 6-foot-4 southpaw scattered six hits while striking out three as West Holmes knocked off Cambridge 6-1 and advance to regional play.