Flyers reflect on finest baseball season in program history

Press Sports Editor
sports@presspublications.com

Though Lake didn’t win the state baseball championship this season, it came as close as it ever has, falling to Heath, 3-1, in a Division III state final to finish as the runner-up.
It’s just the second time in the school’s storied baseball history that the Flyers reached the championship game, and just the third time the team won a regional championship.
In the loss to the Bulldogs, Lake fell behind, 3-0, and was only able to score one run as pitcher Wyatt Binckley kept the Flyers off-balance.
Heath’s Connor Corbett reached on an error to open the game in the top of the first and later scored after the bases were loaded when Riley Baum grounded into a fielder’s choice to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead.
In the bottom of the inning, Lake stranded runners on second and third.
In the second, Heath scored twice to push its lead to three runs.
The Flyers scored their only run in the third when Gavin Kohlhofer reached on a walk and scored on Ryan Wagner hitting into a fielder’s choice.
Lake coach Casey Witt talked about what he hoped he could get out of the team coming into the season.
“My expectations were to compete for a league title and a district title,” said Witt. “I, along with my coaching staff, knew what we had in our program and locker room. I knew we’d be good enough to compete for those two things, and that was our goal.
“In short, (the season) was a lot of fun. I’m not sure I’ve totally wrapped my head around what happened. It was an awesome opportunity with a great group of guys to make more memories than I ever expected. We’re going to enjoy this — no team in Lake history has ever done this. We’ll bring back six starters and eight letter winners, (and) we want to use this as a building block and motivation for next year. We have to keep working hard and get better next year and try to replicate another run.”
The number-one starter, Drew Tajblik, and Wagner, were a force on the mound and led Lake to 28 victories and were instrumental in the Flyers going on such a tremendous run through the postseason.
“They were absolutely terrific,” said Witt. “We knew what we were going to get out of them every time they took the mound. It eases some concerns if you know what you’re walking into.”
Lake finished the season 28-5 and won the Northern Buckeye Conference with an 11-3 record in the league.
The Flyers’ first six postseason games saw them score 40 runs while winning each game by at least four runs.
In the regional semifinals, Lake beat Wynford, 6-1, which was preceded by victories over Ottawa Hills (8-4), Otsego (10-6) and Evergreen (6-0).
“With this group, I don’t think the mindset changed much at all, which is probably why we were able to have the success we did,” said Witt. “They just wanted to keep playing baseball. That propelled things.”
In the 4-0 victory over Minford in the state semifinal, Tajblik, an all-Ohioan that has committed to pitch at the University of Toledo, threw a complete-game shutout, allowing just four hits to go with seven strikeouts and a walk.
He finished the season with a 12-0 record, a 1.31 ERA and 113 strikeouts, compared to just 23 walks in 90.2 innings of work. (Tajblik was also a force at the plate, hitting .369 with 23 RBIs, 42 runs and 36 stolen bases.)
In the second inning, Caleb Tobias drilled an RBI double to right to score Jack Sobzack, giving the Flyers the lead for good at 1-0, and in the third, Tajblik led off the inning with an infield single and stole second base before moving to third on Jay Blazevich’s single. Tajblik scored when Wagner hit a ground ball to third and the throw home was late. Sobzack’s groundout to first scored Blazevich and Tobias had an RBI single to make it 4-0.
A victory that might’ve been almost as satisfying was the 6-2 triumph over Coldwater in the regional final.
Wagner pitched a very good game, allowing a run in the first and a run in the seventh.
At the plate, he drove in Tajblik with a single in the fourth as Lake scored six unanswered runs. Connor Eck hit a two-out, two-run single to score Wagner and Blazevich to give the Flyers the lead for good at 3-1, and Wagner took over from there.
Kohlhofer was the man behind the plate and Tobias played first base when he wasn’t pitching. Blazevich also pitched on occasion and was the second baseman, and Tajblik was the shortstop with Wagner playing third when they weren’t pitching.
Eck was the designated hitter, Korbin Adkins played right field, Aiden Young was the left fielder and Kaiden Cousino played center field.
Blazevich hit .336 to go with three doubles, 28 RBIs and 32 runs scored while Wagner hit .324 and drove in a team-high 32 runs while scoring 27 times.
Perhaps an X-factor with this team was its chemistry.
“I tell everybody this, it’s very real and honest – this group genuinely enjoyed being around each other and each other’s successes,” said Witt. “Take that and combine it with good baseball players and really, really good coaches, and it made my life easy. I got a lot of help. Our guys just got along. They’re an easy group to coach, and that’s part of what made it so enjoyable for me.”