OTSEGO — When two good teams get together, it is usually the little things that matter the most.

Niles, playing in its first Division 2 Regional Baseball Tournament since 2011, committed three errors in losing to Coldwater 3-2 in the second semifinal at Otsego High School Saturday.

Gull Lake rallied to defeat Lakeshore 5-4 in the first semifinal. The Blue Devils went on to beat the Cardinals, who were playing in their third consecutive regional, 8-3 to advance to Tuesday’s quarterfinals.

A mental error and a physical error led to Coldwater scoring in the third and fifth innings.

“There were a couple of plays we didn’t make and that led to a couple of big runs,” Niles coach Mike Vota said. “When you play in a big game like this you cannot give up runs.”

In the third inning with the game still scoreless, Grant Mauer doubled into right field allowing Randall Linton to come around to score when Niles’ Tyler Clutter hesitated in getting the ball back into the infield.

Brandon Lewis then followed with a sacrifice fly to center to drive in the second run of the inning.

The Vikings (24-12) cut the lead in half in the top of the fifth.

Alex Hardy drove in the first run of the game for Niles with a single.

But the Cardinals (25-17) got that run right back in the bottom half of the inning on a physical error by the Vikings.

With two outs, Brendan Spangler reached base when Vikings’ shortstop Bryce Lake misplayed his ground ball. Lewis and Ryan Mock delivered back-to-back singles to drive in what turned out to be the winning run.

Trailing 3-1, Niles scored again in the top of the sixth.

With one out, Jordan Ham and Connor Glick singled with Ham advancing to third. Taylor Weldy followed with a fielder’s choice ground ball to score Ham to make it 3-2.

That would be as close as it would get as Mauer took care of the final six outs. On the day, he allowed five hits. Mauer only struck out three Vikings, but induced 11 ground ball outs.

“We put the ball in play all day,” Vota said. “We just kept hitting shots to their shortstop and he made every single play.”

Niles got a tremendous pitching performance from Tate Brawley, who scattered seven hits and struck out five while walking just one.

Hardy led Niles offensively with two hits.

 

Division 2 Regional

At Otsego

Niles                000    011         0 – 2 5 3

Coldwater     002    010         x – 3 7 1

Tate Brawley (L); Grant Maurer (W)

2B: Taylor Weldy (N), Grant Maurer (C)

Varsity records: Coldwater 25-17, Niles 24-12