UTICA — The Utica Post 92 baseball team thought it had it made after taking a 5-0 lead in the second inning.
But the players learned, the hard way, that wins don’t always come easy.
Galion scored seven runs in the fifth, then hung on to earn a 7-6 victory in Thursday’s Game 1 of the Utica Tournament at Legion Field.
The Royals (3-1) didn’t earn their runs by hitting. The team had just three hits in the game, including two in those first two innings. The Royals earned their runs by being patient at the plate — at least early on. They forced Galion pitcher Mitch Willeke to throw strikes, something he struggled to do at first.
Once he went through the lineup once, Willeke began setting the Royals down, one by one. He didn’t allow another baserunner until the final inning, and that was when Nich Pitzer reached on an error by the third baseman.
