ELYRIA — When one team fails to take care of the little things, it frequently leaves the door open for the opponent to do a few big things.
Elyria Post 12 hit into four double plays, gave Sandusky Post 83 an extra at-bat in the fifth inning, failed to get down a bunt in the bottom of the eighth inning and failed to properly play a bunt in the ninth.
All that made Eric Hahn’s big blow, a two-run home run in the ninth, almost anticlimactic as Sandusky defeated Elyria 6-5 in a non-league game Wednesday night.
“They played better than we played,” Elyria assistant coach Jeff Chenoweth said. “They did the little things and we didn’t.
“We had plenty of chances to score more runs,” Chenoweth added. “We didn’t get the bunts down, didn’t get big hits when we needed them and we made errors that cost us runs.”
The loss dropped Post 12 to 7-2. Post 83 raised its record to 6-1.
“Sandusky is always a good team, and we didn’t play great tonight,” Chenoweth said. “We didn’t score nearly as many runs as we usually do.”
Yet the score was tied at 3 when Sandusky came to bat in the ninth. Nick Simonovich pitched an excellent game for Post 12, giving up two earned runs, walking none and striking out nine through seven innings.
Michael Hamann started Sandusky’s three-run ninth with a single. Shon Alexander laid down a bunt along the third base line that Elyria had no chance to pick up. Hamann stole third, avoiding the tag of third baseman Andrew Eliopoulos. A fly ball to right field by Matt Gundlach got Hamann home.
Hahn then crushed a 2-2 pitch over the right-field fence off Mark Coughlin to make the score 6-3.
Elyria managed to come back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth. Grant Nagy doubled to lead off the inning and Ryan Bartizal reached on an infield error. A wild pitch got pinch-runner Nick Miller to second before Andrew Pearce hit a bloop single with two out to send two runs home.
Post 12 jumped on Sandusky starter Andrew Chaffin for two runs in the first inning. Ryan Rua’s single, Simonovich’s walk and an infield hit by Adam Beach loaded the bases with no one out. Nagy hit into a double play to score Rua. A pass ball enabled Simonovich to score.
Sandusky tied the score in the second. A one-out double by Jared Patton and a two-out double by Alexander was followed by a run-scoring single from Gundlach.
Nagy made it a 3-2 game with a towering home run to left field that landed on Middle Avenue. An RBI double by Michael Shepherd with two away in the fifth inning tied the score.
Kevin Allen was hit by a pitch to lead off Elyria’s eighth, and Coughlin was on second base with one out before winning pitcher Link Conger came up with a strikeout on a 3-2 count and a popup to second to end the threat.

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