The Dayton Rangers (14-10) wrapped up the 2017 regular season with a come-from-behind victory and catapulting them into a third place seeding for the upcoming playoffs.

 

It took a complete team effort to knock off the Kettering Royals 11-8 at Howell Field. Every single player had a key role in what hopefully will be the jump start the team needs to survive a tough postseason path.

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Joe Becker was handed the ball to start the finale in a gutsy performance coming off 4 innings in the All-Star Game the day before. The Royals pushed two runs across in the bottom of the second to take an early 2-0 lead on the Rangers. The Rangers answered with three runs off of Royals' ace Ryan Valentine.

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Nick Gilmore led the inning off with a triple to the left-center field gap. Ben Schooler followed with an RBI double. Brandon Marshall doubled over the left fielder's head to score Schooler. Stephen Hoendorf followed with a run-scoring single to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead.

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But the lead was short-lived as the Royals put up a 3-spot of their own in the bottom of the third to go up 5-3. On the other hand, the Rangers got the three runs back in the top of the fourth. After Gilmore reached on a throwing error, Schooler singled and Marshall walked to load the bases with two outs. Eric Becker then worked a bases-loaded walk, and Cooper Nolte came through with a clutch two-run single to give the Rangers a one-run lead.

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The Royals continued to peck away, scoring one in the fourth and two in the fifth for an 8-6 advantage. The Rangers then turned the ball over to Ryan Meinert, still searching for his first win of the season. And Meinert was outstanding in relief, tossing 4 shutout innings to give the Rangers their opportunity to come back.

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The comeback started in the seventh as a couple of fielder's choices resulted in a run. A Brandon Marshall RBI single in the 8th knotted the score at 8-8.

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In the top of the ninth, Jonmarc Lippincott blooped a single over the shortstop's head with one out to put the go-ahead runner on base. Nolte courtesy-ran for Lippincott, which proved to be a smart move as Cooper scampered all the way to third on a wild pitch. Joe Becker then smoke a linedrive single through a drawn-in infield to plate Nolte with the go-ahead run. Brody Dunlevy smacked his third hit of the game, a double to the opposite field, allowing Becker to trot home. The late throw to the plate allowed Dunlevy to move to third. Once again, with a drawn-in infield, rookie Andrew Holland rapped a curveball into left field to score Dunlevy and give the Rangers an 11-8 lead.

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The Royals put the first 2 runners aboard in the bottom of the ninth, but Meinert issued an infield popup and two fielder's choices to blank the Royals.

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Ryan picked up his first win of the year. If it wasn't for the one bad inning he had against the Boars, his 7.71 ERA would actually be 3.00.