PBR Spotlight Game: No. 8 Leipsic vs. No. 9 Delphos St. John's

ELIDA- Leipsic scored the lone run of the game on a strikeout-wild pitch in the sixth inning to beat Delphos St. John's 1-0 in a battle of state-ranked Division IV teams in the district finals at Elida.

In the bottom of the sixth Nate Schey opened with a single, just the second hit of the game for the No. 8 Vikings off of DSJ hurler Curtis Geise and a Travis Schroeder sacrifice bunt moved Schey to second. With two away and Schey still on second, an Austin Brown swing and miss on a 2-2 pitch in the dirt got away from DSJ catcher Austin Reindel.

With Brown running, Reindel recovered and fired to first but Brown beat the throw. Running from second on the play, Schey raced home and beat the throw for a 1-0 Leipsic lead.

Schroeder, who picked off two runners in the game, went five innings on the hill allowing only three hits and one walk while striking out one for the Vikings before twin brother Trevor Schroeder, a side-armer, came on in the sixth. He retired all six batters he faced, fanning the final four.

Geise, his fastball in the mid-80s, gave up two hits and three walks while striking out seven in taking the loss for the No. 9 Blue Jays (19-7), which made it to the D-IV state semifinals a year ago.

Leipsic (24-3), which lost to Delphos St. John's 2-0 and 3-2 in district semifinal games the past two seasons, advances to face Ottawa Hills (22-5) on Thursday at Patrick Henry in the regional semifinals at 2 p.m.