Norwalk rallies to stun Clyde in 11 innings

NORWALK — Isaiah Wells didn't have a lot of thoughts going through his head. It was already a cold day, and the sun was fading by the minute. The Norwalk baseball team had dug out of deficits of 5-0 and 7-3 against visiting Clyde. But it was the bottom of the 11th inning and the Truckers needed a win to stay in a tie for first place in the SBC Lake Division. Wells shook off what had been a tough game by driving a 1-2 pitch to center to score Noah Helton for the winning run in a wild 8-7 win over the Fliers on Wednesday at NHS. The Truckers improved to 9-3 overall and 5-1 in the Lake, which is tied in the loss column with Perkins (12-4, 6-1). "I was just trying to put the ball in play, that was pretty much it," Wells said of his thought process. "If I could do that, I knew something good would happen. "It was a little nerve-wracking, but that's baseball. It's also a lot of fun. But to help my team win like that, it's very special. But this is a very special team. It was definitely a moment I'll never forget." After the Fliers scored five times in the top of the second, the Truckers answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Avery Scheel walked and Landon Ferkel singled. From third, Scheel then scored on a fielding error on the catcher. Kaedyn Warner then delivered an RBI single to left that plated Ferkel, then Wells singled to right to bring Warner in for a 5-3 deficit. Clyde (5-10, 2-4) then added a run in the top of the third and fifth innings to open up a 7-3 lead. The Fliers were six outs from shaking up the league race when the Truckers dominated the bottom of the sixth. Kevin Howard and Scheel walked and Ferkel reached on an error when he put down a sacrifice bunt to load the bases with nobody out. An error at first base then allowed Howard to score, and Helton jumped on the first pitch he saw with a deep triple to right-center that scored Scheel and Ferkel. That put the tying run at third with no outs, and Brady Singer got the job done with an RBI ground out to short that plated Helton to tie the game at 7-7. Clyde had just two baserunners over the final five innings of the game. Meanwhile, the Truckers had some chances, but were coming up just short until the 11th. Helton reached on an error to start things off, then Singer did the same when the Fliers also committed an error on his sacrifice bunt attempt. A strikeout held the runners, but then Wells fouled off two pitches around a ball before his game-winning hit. "Isaiah doesn't strike out a lot, and we didn't need a double there," Norwalk head coach Jason Higgins said. "He's a kid that, as a sophomore, I'm not sure that it goes the way it did based on his play earlier in the game. "He's grown up a lot. He shook off a couple bad plays and an at-bat or two he'd like back and trusted himself. He got a fastball and got the barrel on it." Higgins talked about the frustration of the game dragging on after his team tied it with no outs in the sixth. "When they brought in (Colt) Flores, we knew he'd be tough to score against," he said. "We brought in (Wesley) Shupe, and it felt like we were starting the game all over again. The sun peaked out for maybe a second to give us a bit more daylight. "I's one of those situations where you have to be in the moment. You can't worry about the next pitch or the next game. You have to win that pitch." Helton started and allowed six runs (four earned) on five hits with two strikeouts and three walks over three innings. Carter Harp was next and allowed one earned run on three hits with a pair of strikeouts and no walks. Shupe then went the final five innings and allowed just one hit with four strikeouts and one walk. Helton threw 69 pitches, followed by Shupe (55) and Harp (45). There is little rest, as the Truckers are scheduled to host Mansfield Madison in a non-league game Thursday before they host Tiffin Columbian (4-9, 2-5) in league play on Friday. Norwalk scored a run in the seventh of a 3-2 win over the Tornadoes on April 15 in Tiffin. "I'm still trying to comprehend everything that happened," Higgins said. "Coming back with the three runs (in the second) made us feel a lot better about our situation. It was our worst defensive game of the season, even on some of the plays we did make. "I just had a good feeling about how we were swinging the bat with our approach at the plate. We were aggressive on the bases and made some stuff happen late." Clyde 051 010 000 00 — 7 9 7 Norwalk 030 004 000 01 — 8 6 6 WP: Shupe; LP: Flores 2B: (CL) Jeffrey 3B: (N) Helton