High school baseball: Amherst doesn't help itself in state final loss to Anthony Wayne

AKRON — In his final inning late Saturday night, it looked like Amherst starter Cole Charles was going to pull off a miraculous escape for the second inning in a row. With the Comets trailing 2-0 in the second, Charles got a bases-loaded flyout to center to end the inning and keep the deficit at two. One inning later, Anthony Wayne had runners on second and third with two outs and one run already across. Charles was one pitch away from escaping further harm when his 1-2 delivery got away from catcher Jacob Schliesser. Jett Smith ran home to make it 4-0 as Schliesser's flip soared over Charles' head. Anthony Wayne wasn't done. Ben Nieckarz was hot on Smith's heels and scored as another flip to Charles at the plate couldn't be corralled. The next pitch from Charles ended the inning on a strikeout of Mason Dzierwa, but the damage was done. Amherst trailed 5-0, and Charles didn't throw another pitch as he was relieved by Cam Rios to start the fourth. "We had a lot of confidence in Cole to start," Amherst coach Matt Rositano said "He struggled a little bit, but we didn't really help him in the field, giving up a couple of unearned runs." The bottom of the third rubbed salt in the wound for the Comets, who immediately got on the board, scoring a pair of runs on a groundout and a dropped third strike. To make matters worse, unearned runs once again reared their ugly head for the Comets in the fourth as the Generals increased their lead to 7-2 after a key error at second base that could have been an inning-ending double play. "I think four of their seven runs were unearned, a couple of errors really hurt us," Rositano said. "When we had to try to put up a zero, they got two runs off Cam and it just got away a little bit after that." Amherst got another run in the sixth, benefiting from a couple of Anthony Wayne errors and scoring an unearned run of its own, but it was too little, too late. Carter Johnson pitched a 1-2-3 seventh to finish off Amherst. The seven runs scored by Anthony Wayne were the second-most Amherst allowed in a game this season, trailing only the 11-8 win over Benedictine in May. The season was magical for Amherst, which won 29 games and made it further in the state playoffs than any team in school history, but it all came crashing down over an inning and a half in the late hours of Saturday night. With most of their key contributors returning next season, the Comets are poised to make another playoff run, but this year's team will be left wondering what could have been if their defense had not deserted them at the worst possible moments. Contact Will Cunningham at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.