By TIM McDONOUGH

mcdonough@crescent-news.com

The big inning was just what Defiance needed and got against Napoleon to remain in the winners' bracket of the ACME district tournament on Thursday at Defiance.

The Bulldogs (17-10) pushed across six runs in the fifth inning and held on for a 6-3 victory over Napoleon (15-6). Defiance will now face Patrick Henry tonight at 6 p.m. in the winners' bracket final after the Patriots defeated Tinora 11-5 at Bryan.

"I thought our enthusiasm and our energy was a lot better tonight and in the fifth we strung together some hits and scored some big runs," commented Defiance ACME mentor Eric Sprague. "We took advantage of some errors too and that's what you need to do to in big games."

"I thought we'd hit their pitching a little better tonight than we did," said Napoleon ACME head coach Greg Wesche. "I guess maybe we had a bad game and now we need to put it out of our minds and try to win this thing the hard way."

For four innings Napoleon's Andrew Keller kept Defiance off-balance and off the scoreboard. And when the Wildcats pushed a run across the plate in the bottom of the fourth, on a Robert Gilson RBI single that scored Ethan Mathias, Napoleon was in front ,1-0.

That all changed in the fifth when the Bulldogs sent nine batters to the plate and took advantage of some shaky Napoleon defense.

Ryan Cordray began the inning for Defiance by getting hit in the head by a Keller offering. After a short delay, the Bulldogs executed a perfect bunt-and-run play. With Cordray running, Alex Nofziger put down a hard bunt past Keller toward second base, which had just been vacated by Napoleon second baseman Sam Wesche, allowing Cordray to reach third base.

Following a steal of second by Nofziger, Mark Sebring delivered with a double down the line in right to score Cordray and Nofziger and give Defiance a 2-1 lead. One batter later Ethan Rohlf ripped a sharp double to left-center and suddenly the Bulldogs were up 3-1.

"The important thing was I was at two strikes and when you've got guys on second and third what you want to do is put the ball in play," said Sebring. "The pitch was on the outside so all I tried to do was take it the other way and it landed in. It felt great and it got us started on a big inning."

When Dace Kime followed with a single up the middle, the stage was set for a pair of Napoleon errors. The throw home trying to cut down Rohlf at the plate sailed over the head of Napoleon catcher Chase Heinze, sending Kime around second and toward third. Keller, backing up the play, then tried to get Kime at third, but Keller's throw went sailing into left allowing Kime to score and give Defiance a 5-1 lead.

That wasn't the end of it however.

A shot to center off the bat of Craig Gutman was dropped for another error. A foul out allowed Gutman to tag to third and a squeeze bunt by Corbin Stykemain sent Gutman home with Defiance's sixth run.

"When you give a team like that extra outs, and you don't do things like hit the cutoff man, that's the kind of things that can happen," said Wesche. "It snowballed and that's why they won the game 6-3. So give them credit for taking advantage of our mistakes."

"Mark stayed on that off-pitch pitch nicely and took it to right and that's what sparked us in that fifth inning," said Sprague. "Like last night, once we got that big hit we were able to keep it rolling and that's what happened tonight. When we get a big play here or there, that seems to get us going, now we just need to do that more consistently."

In the seventh, Napoleon scored a pair of runs on a homer by Zach Lerch, but that was as close as the Wildcats could get in the 6-3 defeat. Sebring finished with two singles and double for Defiance, Rohlf had a single and double and Nofziger and Kime added a pair of singles.

Lerch finished with a single and homer for Napoleon, while Sam Wesche added a single and triple. With the loss Napoleon falls to the losers' bracket where it will face Archbold tonight at 8 p.m. at Bryan. Archbold defeated Bryan 2-1 to stay alive on Thursday at Bryan.

Also tonight at Bryan, Tinora and Pettisville will meet in the losers' bracket after the Blackbirds downed Edon 10-1 Thursday at Defiance. The Tinora-Pettisville matchup is slated for 5:30 p.m. tonight at Bryan.

Linescores

Defiance 000 060 0 - 6 11 1

Napoleon 000 100 2 - 3 7 5

Records: Defiance 17-10, Napoleon 15-6.

Winning pitcher: Eric Stapleton (4 innings, 1 run, 3 hits, 4 strikeouts, 4 walks). Other: Alex Nofziger.

Losing pitcher: Andrew Keller (5 innings, 6 runs, 7 hits, 4 strikeouts, 1 walk). Other: Tyler Kossow.

Leading hitters: (Defiance, 11 hits) - Alex Nofziger 2 singles; Mark Sebring 2 singles, double; Ethan Rohlf single, double; Dace Kime 2 singles. (Napoleon, 7 hits) - Sam Wesche single, triple; Zach Lerch single, home run.

Patrick Henry 000 155 0 - 11 10 1

Tinora 200 002 1 - 5 10 4

Records: Patrick Henry 11-4, Tinora 16-2.

Winning pitcher: Tyler Phillips (6 innings, 4 runs, 8 hits, 2 strikeouts, 3 walks). Other: Brian Kline.

Losing pitcher: Ethan McKenney (4 1/3 innings, 6 runs, 7 hits, 4 strikeouts, 3 walks). Other: Jon Gerken.

Leading hitters: (Patrick Henry, 10 hits) - Cody Meyer 3 singles; Austin Bower 2 singles; Kasey Spence single, double. (Tinora, 10 hits) - Landon Drewes 2 singles; Trey Meyer 2 singles; Ethan McKenney double; Lucas Willitzer single, double; Jon Gerken 2 doubles.

Pettisville 140 230 0 - 10 10 0

Edon 000 010 0 - 1 3 4

Records: Pettisville 10-9, Edon 13-12.

Winning pitcher: Jordan Klopfenstein.

Losing pitcher: Jake Wells.

Leading hitters: (Pettisville, 10 hits) - Quinn Nofziger 2 doubles, 3 runs; Jordan Klopfenstein 2 singles, double; Zane Miller 2 singles. (Edon, 3 hits) - Noah Hill double; Tony Kessler double.