FINDLAY — The Napoleon Post #300 legion baseball team opened Findlay’s wood bat tournament with a tough-luck loss Friday morning.

But the River Bandits closed the first day of the three-day, five-team, round robin format with a win, igniting a sweep through the rest of the tournament to finish with a 7-2 championship win over Sidney Post #217 Sunday afternoon at Findlay High School.

“We have a deep staff. We have a deep pitching staff, so we knew the longer we went into this thing, obviously we had our No. 1 for the last game. And we have several guys that didn’t even get work in,” Bandits coach Justin Reynolds said.

“But we played well Friday, the ball just did not bounce our way. … We knew we had a shot today with Zach on the mound and we played team baseball all weekend long. We bunted really well, we played really good defense and we ran the bases well.”

Following a 5-3 loss to Ottawa Post #63 to open Friday, the Bandits rolled past Sidney 11-1 in six innings. Post #300 swept Saturday with a 4-1 win over Utica Post #92 and a 6-2 win over the host Findlay Post #3, leading to Sunday’s title game victory.

Owen Reynolds sparked the scoring in the championship game, ripping his first of two doubles in the game to drive in a pair of two-out runs in the bottom of the third inning.

Tripp Langenderfer (Archbold) led off the frame with a first-pitch single and Kenneth Smeltzer (Montpelier) added a one-out single to set up Reynolds.

Zach Short (Archbold), who allowed the first three batters of the game to reach base and walked three in the first two innings, settled in from there, which included a 1-2-3 effort in the fourth.

Short struck out the first two batters of the inning before jumping off the mound to field a slow chopper along the third-base line and throw to first base to beat the runner for the third out.

Short allowed one run — a run-scoring double in the fifth — and four hits with four walks and seven strikeouts across five innings to earn the win.

“You just have to trust his stuff and let him just go,” coach Reynolds said. “He got a little bit, I don’t want to say flustered or whatever, but he had a rough outing in his last outing, and you could see it that once he settled in, we just let him go.”

The Bandits’ offense added to their 2-1 lead with runs in the fifth and sixth innings to put the game out of reach.

Smeltzer led off the fifth with a walk, advanced to second on a balk and later stole third base, which forced an errant throw and allowed him to score for a 3-1 lead.

Reynolds followed with a one-out double down the left-field line, Kaden Kreinbrink (Liberty Center) reached on an error after his hard-hit swing ricocheted off the first baseman and Maddox Baker (Edgerton) hit behind the lead runner for an RBI groundout and a 4-1 lead.

Cade Carlin (Bryan) ripped a leadoff single through second base to open the sixth inning, Langenderfer knocked a single just past the shortstop and Smeltzer earned a one-out intentional walk to load the bases. Parker Hancock belted a line-drive, RBI single over the third baseman, Kreinbrink drew a walk to force a run in and Jackson Poynter’s grounder drove in another run for a 7-1 lead.

“For the most part, it wasn’t the same guys every game. It was somebody else. Somebody else was 3 for 3 or 2 for 2. It was so many different guys and that’s what good teams do,” coach Reynolds said of the Bandits’ offense. “You just keep grinding and know that the next guy up is going to get a big hit when the time is right. We had a lot of two-out runs and that’s kind of been our MO all year long.

“They’re buying into the approach, they’re learning, and it’s really coming together.”

Langenderfer led the River Bandits on Sunday with three hits and a walk, while Reynolds had a pair of doubles and two RBI.

Across the final two days of the tournament, Anthony Singer (Fairview) tallied a team-high five hits with an RBI, while Camden Bukowski (Bryan) was a home run short of the cycle with an RBI on Saturday.

Also in the final two days, Smeltzer had four hits, including a double, with two walks and an RBI; Baker singled twice with a double and an RBI; Zack Boecker (Holgate) doubled, walked and drove in a run; and Cade Carlin (Bryan) singled twice with an RBI.

Ryne Maag closed Sunday’s game, allowing one run and three hits with one walk and two strikeouts in two innings of relief.

Cory Herman (Edgerton) and Elijah Arend (Fairview) both earned wins on Saturday. Herman allowed one run and six hits with one walk and six strikeouts in the complete game, while Arend won the nightcap after allowing two runs and six hits with two walks and six strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.

The Bandits, who improved to 12-5 overall, return to action Tuesday at Ottawa for a nine-inning game before a game against Adrian at Defiance High School on Wednesday.