Crescent-News.com - Defiance baseball: Bulldogs snap Bowling Green's 11-game win streak

BOWLING GREEN -- The Bobcats of Bowling Green saw their 11-game win streak come to a screeching halt on Thursday afternoon at home as the Bulldogs of Defiance jumped out to a 7-1 lead after two innings in a 9-4 win.

The victory ran Defiance's win streak to 11 as the Bulldogs, ranked seventh in the state in Division II, improved to 13-1 on the season. Bowling Green falls to 11-2.

"We knew coming into this week that we'd be hitting a tough stretch of games and it's big to start it off with a win against a good Bowling Green team," commented Defiance mentor Tom Held. "With the tournament draw coming up, a win like this goes a long way."

Steve Riedel and Dace Kime were swinging big bats for the Bulldogs in the first two innings. Riedel drove in a pair of runs each in the first two frames with doubles, while Kime drove in three runs combined with singles on the way to the early 7-run outburst.

"Bowling Green had won 11 in-a-row coming in, so to put a three-spot up in the first and a four-spot up in the second was definitely big for us," said Held. "Steve-O (Riedel) and Dace had all seven RBI for us in those first two innings from the four and five hole in our lineup.

"Steve and Dace have been doing it all year long and it was good to see them keep swinging hot bats. Both of them have really been seeing the ball well the last couple of weeks and hopefully they can keep it going."

Adam Wagner earned the win for Defiance, going six innings while allowing two runs on seven hits, with six strikeouts and four walks.

"Snoop (Wagner) didn't have his best command today, but he competed all game long," said Held. "He got big outs when we needed them and our defense made some big plays behind him. We got a big double play from Bryn Lehman and Justin Riley in the first inning and Craig Gutman threw out two runners at home."

Lehman added three singles and three RBI for DHS from the nine-hole, while Gutman finished with a pair of doubles.

Defiance returns to action today at home in Western Buckeye League play when it hosts Van Wert.

Linescore

Defiance 340 010 1 - 9 11 4

Bowl. Green 100 010 2 - 4 9 3

Records: Defiance 13-1, Bowling Green 11-2.

Winning pitcher: Adam Wagner (6 innings, 2 runs, 7 hits, 6 strikeouts, 4 walks). Other: Bryn Lehman.

Losing pitcher: Rodesy (2 innings, 7 runs, 6 hits, 2 strikeouts, 2 walks). Others: Snyder, Milligan.

Leading hitters: (Defiance, 11 hits) - Craig Gutman 2 singles; Steve Riedel single, 2 doubles, 4 RBI; Dace Kime 2 singles, 3 RBI; Bryn Lehman 3 singles, 3 RBI. (Bowling Green, 9 hits) - Simon single, double; Vannett 2 singles, double.