By Chris Rutz

BATAVIA, OH- After getting rained out for the entire latter half of last week, the Goshen Warriors and Batavia Bulldogs were finally able to play some baseball Monday afternoon on a beautiful sunny day at Batavia high school. The time off seemed to effect the Bulldogs a bit more than the Warriors as the Warriors coasted to an easy 12-2 win to advance to the District Semifinals.

Goshen sent their lanky '15 LHP Jesse Peters to the mound to face the Batavia senior '14 RHP Kyle Schmitgen.

In the first two innings, both teams struggled to size up their opposing pitcher as both pitchers cruised through the first 3 innings setting the opposing team down in 1-2-3 fashion.

In the top of the fourth, the Warriors '16 INF Isaac Hart was the first to reach base after a Batavia throwing error on a play in the hole. What little progress the Warriors made against Schmitgen was erased by an athletically turned 1-6-3 double play on a high chopping ball back to the mound.

Batavia was able to finally get the bat on the ball in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Schmitgen attempted to help his own cause as the speedster hustled out of the box and stretched a single to right center field into a double. Schmitgen used that same speed to steal third which threatened Peters' previously unblemished line.

Peters proceeded to walk '14 OF Austin Sammons followed by an intentional walk to '16 3B Ty Wolfe to load the bases.

Batavia decided to take a risk when they attempted to push a run across by calling back-to-back suicide squeezes to counter Peter's dominant pitching.

The first attempt was extinguished with a close play at the plate when Schmitgen was barely tagged out as he slid into home. 

The second attempt benefited from the missed bunt, as the runner was caught in a pickle leading to a throwing error and the first run of the game.

Peters had enough of the Bulldog rally as he proceeded to strike out the next two hitters with his hard biting curveball.

Trailing 1-0 after four innings played seemed to be just what the Warriors needed to awaken their previously dormant offense.

The Warriors came back in the top of the fifth to answer the Batavia rally with a vengeance as they plated seven runs off a few unforced Batavia errors and some timely hitting.

'16 C Noah Billingsley led things off with a line drive single to center, followed by a close play at first on a well-executed hit and run. A walk loaded the bases and led to Peters helping himself with a bloop single over the second baseman scoring Goshen's first run of the day.

A Kyle Decker ('15 INF) single up the middle plated two more Goshen runners and led to the wheels to start falling off for Batavia. The next four batters either walked or reached base on an error pushing the score to 7-1 heading into Batavia's final three at bats.

After a very impressive outing, Peters was pulled in the top of the sixth after striking out ten and only conceding to two hits (both of which were accredited to his opposing pitcher).

The Warriors plated two more runs in the top half of the inning after two runs scored on another Batavia throwing error, stretching the lead to 9-1 after 6 and a half innings played.

Schmitgen singled (third hit of game) to get things started in the bottom of the sixth. And once again, Batavia's bats fizzled out against Warrior pitching as they went down in order.

Batavia eventually added another run in the bottom of the seventh, but it proved to be too little too late after Goshen scored another three in the top half of the inning.

Goshen advanced with an easy 12-2 victory and looks ahead to Thursday's match-up at Anderson HS in the District Finals of the Division II playoffs at 5 p.m. against the No. 1 seed, New Richmond (ranked No. 24).

Linescore

Batavia  000 100 1 - 2

Goshen  000 072 3 - 12

Winning Pitcher  Jesse Peters ( 5 Innings pitched, 0 earned runs, 2 hits, 2 walks).

Others: Decker.

Losing Pitcher  Kyle Schmitgen (6 Innings pitched, 9 earned runs, 4 hits, 4 walks).

Others:  Sammons.

Notable Hitters

Batavia  Schmitgen (Double, 2 singles), Salyers (Single).

Goshen  Kyle Decker (single, 2 RBIs), Paul Collins (1 single, RBI), Coopman (Single, Double, RBI), Jesse Peters (single, RBI)​.