Flyers draw atypical No. 5 seed
May 19—NORWALK — This won't be easy.
Many times on paper, the No. 2 seed in a district has a favorable opening tournament game.
But the Division IV Clyde baseball district isn't a typical field, and the St. Paul Flyers know that going into Thursday.
The No. 2-seeded Flyers (15-8) will host No. 5 Toledo Christian (12-7) at 5 p.m. at Norwalk Area Contractors Park in a sectional championship game.
The winner will advance to next Wednesday's district semifinal matchup at 4:30 p.m. in Clyde against the winner of the third meeting between No. 3 New Riegel (16-10) and No. 4 Old Fort (12-7).
The Eagles come to Norwalk after an 8-2 win over Danbury on Tuesday in a sectional semifinal. Starting pitcher Lukas Donawa struck out a program record 18 batters in the win.
Toledo Christian has lost twice to Div. III No. 8-ranked Ottawa Hills (20-5) and Fairview (14-9). They also lost games to Div. III No. 18 Defiance Tinora (17-4) along with Liberty Center (13-6) and Holland Springfield (11-12).
Four of seven losses for Christian came by two runs.
"Toledo Christian is a very good team," St. Paul coach Aaron Fries said. "It's a small school around a big city and they play a lot of bigger schools near them. They will come in battle-tested, and our kids know that."
The Eagles are expected to start Kyle Gebhart. He is 6-1 with a 1.74 ERA this season. Gebhart has 10 earned runs on 34 hits with 43 strikeouts and 11 walks in 40 2/3 innings.
The No. 21-ranked Flyers also come into the matchup as a tested team. In non-league play, St. Paul has faced the likes of Div. IV No. 2 Hopewell-Loudon (18-2) — the top seed in the Clyde district — Div. III No. 11 Edison (18-7), Huron (16-10) and Norwalk (16-7).
Edison and Norwalk are also No. 1 seeds in their respective districts.
In the FIrelands Conference, the Flyers lost a pair of games to Div. IV No. 7 South Central (17-4) and split with Plymouth (15-7), which had been previously ranked this season.
On Tuesday at Norwalk, the Flyers erased a pair of two-run deficits and were tied 4-4 in the middle of the sixth inning, but allowed six runs in the bottom of the frame in a 10-4 loss.
A handful of mental and physical errors led to the six-run outburst.
"(Tuesday) was great for me to see — I had some kids moved around at certain positions to get a look today for Thursday," Fries said. "I'm pretty much squared away with what we're going to do, and today was a big part of that ... putting kids in positions and seeing if they could be successful.
"I saw a lot of good things, but then just a few things and a few errors there that cost us the game," he added. "If I don't do a better job of putting kids in position to be successful on Thursday, then we'll follow the same fate — because we're going to play a good team."
The Flyers are 10-2 at Contractors Park, losing by one run each to South Central and Port Clinton in the same week.
"The good thing about it is we're at home," Fries said. "We've played really well at home this year, and I'm hoping that continues and gives us the leg up on Thursday."
St. Paul will counter with Eli Fisher (5-1, 1.81 ERA) on the mound. He has 51 strikeouts and 22 walks in 46 1/3 innings.
The Flyers are seeking a sixth straight sectional title.
