MARION — The Northmor Golden Knights baseball squad headed to Marion on Tuesday afternoon to begin their Division III, Central II sectional tournament run.
Northmor, the No. 17 seed in the bracket, met up with the hosting No. 15 seeded Elgin Comets for a chance to advance to Thursday’s sectional championship game against the No. 1 seeded West Jefferson Roughriders.
The visiting Knights got the bats out early, scoring four runs in the top of the first and, after holding the Comets scoreless in the home half, tacked on three additional runs in the second.
Northmor’s offense would quiet down a bit and both teams would be held off of the scoreboard in the third through fifth innings. Entering the sixth with the Knights up 7-0, the offense would get back on track and tallied their eighth run. Elgin was unable to figure out Northmor pitcher Chris Bood and the game headed into the seventh with the visitors up by a score of 8-0.
In the seventh, the Golden Knights made the game a “no-doubter” with two more runs and Bood continued to shine in the home half of the frame as Northmor prevailed by a final score of 10-0 to advance.
Bood went the distance on the mound for the black and gold, allowing just two hits over seven innings while walking three and striking out four Comets’ hitters. At the dish, Bood helped his own cause with a pair of singles, a run scored and a run batted in.
Senior Ryland Thomas set a new state record in the contest with Elgin. Thomas was hit by a pitch in three at-bats on the day, bringing his total to 28 on the season en route to erasing the old record of 26.
Pierce Lower, Hunter Mariotti and Garrett Corwin all picked up multi-hit games for Northmor in the win. Lower knocked a trio of singles while driving in two runs and Mariotti belted a pair of singles, scored twice, drove in a run and stole a base. Corwin finished with two singles and a run scored.
Other offense for the Golden Knights came from: Wyatt Reeder- 2B, 3R, SB; Mostyn Evans- 1B, R, 2RBI; Brayden Black- 1B, 2R and Tyler Brown- RBI.
Northmor tallied a dozen hits en route to their 10 runs despite leaving 10 runners on the base path. The Knights committed zero errors on the day while the Elgin Comets had two miscues. With the victory, Northmor improved their season record to 8-14 overall.
On Thursday, the Golden Knights and hosting Roughriders are set to get underway at 5 p.m. The winner of that sectional championship will move on to district semifinals action against either the No. 11 seed Heath or the No. 13 seed Worthington Christian on Tuesday, May 21 with the site yet to be determined.
