Coldwater falls short of winning seventh state title

“You come to the tournament and you play a good team,” Coldwater coach Brian Harlamert said. “Both teams were very aggressive. Unfortunately, their balls fell in, and our balls didn’t quite fall in.”

Coldwater finished the season 27-7. This was its 20th state appearance.

“They weren’t supposed to be here,” Harlamert said. “There’s a bunch of guys who are one-year varsity starters for us, and they believe in the program. We’re going to teach them all the way down, all the way up. The bottom line is we didn’t get No. 7 but we got here for No. 20.”

South Range (18-15) entered the tournament with an 11-15 record and won its first state championship. Prior to this tournament run, it had never won a district championship.

The Raiders took the lead in the first inning with a two-out RBI single by Ben Rivera. Jake Gehring's sacrifice fly made it 2-0 in the third.

Coldwater (27-7) tied the game with two runs in the fourth. Jake Wenning scored on a balk. A squeeze bunt by Seth Miller scored Nathan Grunden.

South Range regained the lead on a sacrifice fly by Jared Bajerski in the sixth.

The Cavaliers had runners at first and second in the sixth when pinch hitter Joey Welsch lined a ball just foul down the left-field line. He then grounded into a double play to end the inning.

"It's a game of inches," Harlamert said. "That play right there is a single, possibly a double, getting one run or maybe two."