By Dylan Hefflinger

HAMLER-  On an extremely windy day Bryan traveled to Patrick Henry in a battle of Northwest Ohio Athletic League rivals. The Golden Bears put a 32-game NWOAL win streak on the line against one of the top pitchers in northwest Ohio in Kevin Kline.

A University of Toledo commit, Kline was on the mound for the Patriots and the senior was consistently in the upper-80s, topping out at 89 mph. The 6-5, 210-pound Kline gave up 3 earned runs on 7 hits, while striking out 5 batters.

However, Kline was a little wild on the day, walking 5 and hitting another 2 batters.

"I thought Kevin threw well enough to win," PH coach Shawn Sunderman said. "Offensively, we let ourselves down as we need to do a better job of producing clutch hits with men on base, especially in scoring position. Bryan did a good job putting the ball in play, which we knew they would, but they did not square too many balls up."

Bryan (6-1, 1-0 NWOAL) went with Joe Borland, a 6-2 senior who threw an outstanding game. Borland's velocity reached the mid-80s in his 6 1/3 innings on the hill, allowing 1 run on 6 hits with 4 walks and 5 strikeouts.

"Joe was phenomenal for us today against a solid Patrick Henry team. He just battled, threw strikes, kept the ball down and used his defense while scattering 6 singles throughout 6.1 innings.  He had been struggling with his control over his last two outings and I thought Joe competed today without his best stuff," Bryan coach Jeff Inselmann said.

With the scored tied 1-1 in the sixth, Kline got into a little trouble after hitting Jordan Bostater and walking Matt Chaney. With runners on first and second, Tanner Vollmer ripped a single to left to load the bases. Up to bat came Dexter Ridgway with the bases juiced and the junior ripped a line shot up the middle to score 2 huge runs.

The Golden Bears added one in the seventh on a triple by Derek Hug, who finished the day with a single and triple and two runs scored, followed by an error.

"We were finally able to break through in the 6th inning after a HBP and BB we advanced our runners on a passed ball followed by a huge two-run single by Dexter Ridgway. Getting an additional insurance run in the 7th was huge because it gave us some added cushion,'' Inselmann said of Ridgway. "Derek Hug had a big one out triple for us and we were able to get him in on a ground ball.  As our coaching staff tells our team, if you put the ball in play good things happen and that stood true for us today," said Inselmann.  

Hug had put Bryan on top early with a single, stolen base, wild pitch and passed ball plating the first run by the Bears,

"The biggest thing I feel Kevin needs to improve on is getting ahead in the count early," Sunderman said of Kline. "He had too many 2-0 counts and 3-ball counts that made him work harder to make batters earn their way on. This in turn tired him out in the last two innings when Bryan took the lead and added an insurance run in the 7th on a botched throw home.

"It is tough for high school kids to think that far in advance of why it is so beneficial to jump ahead early in an at-bat to conserve energy and keep pitch count down to be able to shut the door in the end of a game when needed. Bryan played good solid baseball and they definitely did what they needed to earn a conference win on the road."

Bryan kept the 1-0 lead until the bottom of the 4th when PH senior Kyle Bergstedt, lined a single up the middle and later scored on a wild pitch by Borland.

But Ridgeway's big hit in the 6th helped Bryan push its NWOAL winning streak to 33 with a road game with Liberty Center slated for Thursday.

Patrick Henry looks to bounce back at home against Van Buren on Tuesday.