HIGH SCHOOL-OHIO

Lakota East downs Harrison 7-2

Marc Hardin
prepsports@enquirer.com
Lakota East pitcher Andy Almquist earned his sixth win of the season in a 7-2 victory over Harrison on Thursday.

Lakota East baseball player Andy Almquist's mother is Cathy Almquist, a former Ohio State golfer who has won multiple Metropolitan Amateur women's golf championships in Cincinnati.

"She's got a lot of crystal from winning," he said.

But her son has a golden arm. When it came time to make a choice between golf and baseball as a teenager, it was a no-brainer despite his pedigree on the links. He chose the diamond.

The Thunderhawks are glad he did.

In Thursday's power-packed Division I sectional game pitting host Harrison against Lakota East, a top-10 team in the Enquirer Ohio area coaches' poll was going to have its season ended by another in the second round.

The Thunderhawks, ranked No. 6, didn't want to be the ones making the early exit. They beat No. 8 Harrison, 7-2, in a game where solid base hits were at a premium early on a chilly, windy day.

The Thunderhawks (20-9) managed just one hit through three innings against the Wildcats (19-9), but they were able to score a run in the first on Hayden Senger's RBI double to left-center field, and one in the third on Adam McDonough's sacrifice fly to center.

They made it 5-0 with three runs in the fourth on one hit. A pair of walks and a sacrifice bent generated the third run and put runners on second and third for Austin Hatfield, who stroked a two-run single into shallow center field and took the extra base on the throw.

That knocked previously unbeaten Harrison starter Darien Smith out of the game and brought in reliever Kyle DiPuccio, who got out of the inning with two quick outs. Lakota East reached DiPuccio for a run in the fifth on Senger's second double, lifted over the left fielder's head. At that point, the Thunderhawks had six runs on four hits. They finished with 10 hits.

Harrison plated a run in the fourth on a ground ball to the shortstop, but Lakota East got out of it with an inning-ending double play on a fly ball to center and a tag-out at second base. The Wildcats added another run in the fifth on a single by Mason Brunner.

Lakota East set the final score with a run in the seventh on Kyle Lepper's single to right-center.

Harrison needed five runs in the bottom of the inning to tie it with the top of the batting order set to face Almquist, but the right-hander retired the first two batters on strikes before walking the No. 3 hitter. He got a game-ending force-out at second on a ground ball by Brunner, giving the Thunderhawks their fourth 20-win season in five years.

NOTABLE: Lakota East plays Friday's Elder-Hamilton winner in next Thursday's Cincinnati 5 sectional final, the winner of which advances to a district game May 24 vs. the Dayton 1 sectional winner.

PLAYS OF THE GAME: Lakota East plated its third run when Mitch Bodden's sacrifice bunt scored a runner from third after the catcher dropped the throw from the pitcher. Harrison, looking for a late rally, had runners on first and second in the sixth, but the Thunderhawks got out of the inning with a 1-5-3 double play.

QUOTABLE: "I didn't have my best stuff today," Almquist said. "But they kept swinging at high fastballs, and they popped them up."

PLAYERS OF THE GAME: Almquist, who entered play with a 2.02 ERA, earned his sixth win.

• Hatfield's two-run single during the three-run fourth gave the Thunderhawks breathing room.

• Hayden Senger went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and two RBI. "It was 5-1 so that was a big one that gave us two extra insurance runs," Hatfield said of his lone hit.

VIEW FROM THE SIDELINE: "He just battles, and keeps it in the strike zone," Lakota East coach Ray Hamilton said of Almquist. "I thought he got better as the game went on because he got better commanding his breaking ball."

Said Harrison coach Shawn Sowders, who loses nine history-making seniors: "We had a great group who did something we've never done before. They won three straight conference titles. We won the last FAVC and the first two in the SWOC, so they left the program in better they shape than when they got here."

Lakota East 101 310 1 -- 7 - 10 -2

Harrison 000 110 0 -- 2 - 8 - 2

WP: Almquist (6-2). LP: Smith (4-1). Leaders: LE-Senger 3-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Lepper 2-4; Hatfield 2 RBI. H-Hogue 2-4; Brunner 2-4. Records: L 20-9, H 19-9.