FORT JENNINGS — With the baseball and softball sectional draws coming Sunday afternoon, teams are jockeying for the best possible seeds.

That was on the line when Jefferson visited Fort Jennings Village Park on a pleasant Wednesday night to battle the Musketeers in non-league baseball action.

When Aaron Schuerman knocked in Sean Fisher with a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh inning, that gave the visiting Wildcats (11-5) a hard-fought 4-3 win.

“You had two teams looking at Sunday’s draw and playing hard. It was a tough, back-and-forth game,” Jefferson coach Troy Montenery began. “In close games like this, it’s about executing and coming through in the clutch. That’s what you expect out of a veteran team like we have.”

That it is.

With sophomore Trevor Von Sossan (1-2) relieving southpaw classmate Drew Mesker (6 IP, 7 hits, 3 runs, 2 earned, 3 bases-on-balls, 4 strikeouts) in the top of the seventh, Fisher led off with a sharp single to right. He stole second. An out later, Adam “Mad Dog” Kraning beat out and infield hit to the hole at short — with Ross Gerdeman making a great diving stop to preserve a run — to put runners on the corners. Schuerman, a switch-hitter batting lefty, hit a fly ball deep enough to center to get Fisher home and a 4-3 lead.

Sophomore Craig Carder (1-0; 4 walks, 3 strikeouts), who threw 2 2/3 innings in relief of Josh Miller, walked Mesker to lead off the home half, who then swiped second. However, he followed that with a strikeout, a lineout to right field and a fly ball to finish off the win.

“I felt we were in good shape there with Drew on and our 3, 4 and 5 hitters following. Sometimes, it just doesn’t happen,” Jennings coach Jeff Swick said. “Just two days before that, we were in a similar situation versus Ottoville — trailing by 1 — and we scored two with two outs to win the game.”

“Those were not easy plays to make. That was a tough play coming in for Cory (Bastian) in right; on the fly ball to Matt (Antalis) in center, he was battling the sun,” Montenery noted. “Craig, the only sophomore on our varsity, comes in and does a fantastic job shutting them down. That’s a pressure-packed situation and he handled it well.”

The Wildcats had scored an unearned run in the sixth against Mesker to tie it at 3. Carder walked to lead it off. Two outs later, Taylor “T-Bone” Hesseling hit a high pop-up that was dropped for an error, allowing a hustling Carder to score.

Jennings (7-8) got 2-out walks to Tyler Good and Austin Norbeck in the home half but Aaron Chandler lined out to second baseman Fisher to end the uprising.

“That error was a momentum-changer; if we get out of the inning still up, it changes our strategy,” Swick explained. “Likely, I’d have brought Ross in for the seventh. It was also big not to score in the bottom half. Aaron is batting around .400; I like him up in that situation.”

The Musketeers chased Miller (4 1/3 IP, 2 hits, 3 runs, 2 earned, 3 walks, 10 Ks) in the fifth. With one down, Chandler looped a single to right, stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a passed ball to nab a 3-2 lead. Mesker walked, which brought in Carder. Mesker stole second and an out later, third. Jared Horstman walked but Matt Krietemeyer bounced out, ending the inning.

The visitors went up 1-0 in the second. Schuerman beat out an infield hit to short and stole second. An out hence, he stole third. An out later, Damon Joseph’s single up the gut scored him. Joseph was picked off base by Mesker and thrown out at second to end the frame.

Jennings scored two in the home half. Miller threw nine straight balls to walk Horstman, hit Krietemeyer (both of whom stole the next base) and walk Von Sossan. Josh Calvelage grounded a single inside the first-base bag to score Horstman and Krietemeyer and put runners on the corners. A pitch in the dirt on a strikeout got Calvelage to second but Miller whiffed the next two to keep it a 1-run deficit.

Jefferson threatened in the third. Hesseling and Bastian singled but Fisher forced the lead runner at third. Miller singled to load them up but Kraning’s comebacker led to a 1-2-3 inning-ending twin-killing.

Jefferson got runners to second (Matt Gerdeman) and third (Schuerman) with one out in the fourth but fly balls kept them there.

“We seemed to get a lot of runners to third with less than two outs but struggled getting a hit or a fly ball deep enough to get them in. Again, a veteran team keeps going at it,” Montenery added. “I was again pleased with our defense. For the most part, we’ve gotten quality pitching and defense all year.”

Jefferson did knot it at 2 in the fifth. With two down, Miller singled, stole second and scored on Kraning’s ground single to center.

“It was a tough one to lose,” Swick added. “We had too many strikeouts. We’ve been hitting the ball well and being aggressive the last few games, winning five in a row. Now, I think we’re being too aggressive and swinging at everything. We need to work it out on the fly and develop some discipline.”

Jefferson takes to the road to battle Columbus Grove tonight (5 p.m. first pitch). Jennings hosts Leipsic in the continuation of a suspended game at 5 p.m. tonight. The Musketeers are up 2-1 in the top of the second inning.