MVP News: SCL, MAC teams vie for baseball, track and softball titles
By Tim Langevin
It was a sports, dog-life weekend with seven times the excitement in the greater Miami Valley area. The gamble that paid. Thrice as nice. And finally, more salsa with your chips. These headlines and more…
Lehman baseball coach Dave King faced a tough decision prior to his team’s district final appearance Friday. Start his ace Alex Smith, the area leader in strikeouts with 124, for just three innings or start Matt Pulfer with a 6-2 record and a 2.13 ERA and hope he can pitch four solid innings.
King decided on Pulfer and the gamble paid off. Pulfer pitched four scoreless innings and Kaleb Goins singled up the middle to drive home the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Talk about clutch hitting. But then again, talking about Kaleb Goins. Perhaps, the most prolific athlete in school history.
The Cardiac Cavs escaped with a 3-2 victory over Arcanum.
“It was a great game,” said Kinger. “I can’t say enough about Matt. He really gutted it out to the fifth inning. He persevered and did the job.”
Kinger knows all about perseverance. Diagnosed with Melanoma skin cancer earlier in the year, he has battled back and was given a clean bill of health recently.
Lehman jumped out on top 2-0 after the first inning. Tyler Steinke drew a walk. DJ Hemm, batting .493, singled. A wild pitch advanced both runners and then Goins singled to drive home the first two runs.
Hemm, Steinke, and Goins each had two hits for the game and Will Fridley added a double.
Lehman (18-6-1) advances to the D-IV regional semi-finals for the second time in three years and will battle county rival Russia (18-7) Thursday at Springfield High School at 2:00 PM.
In another wild thriller, Russia scored three runs over the final three innings to knock out third-ranked Southeastern 3-1 in district final action Friday. Reliever Jacob Hoying earned his fourth win of the season.
Trailing 1-0 through four innings, the Raiders tied it in the fifth on a bunt single by Colyn Mc Eldowney and a double by starting pitcher Jacob Hoying. Jeff Simon scored the lone run in the sixth and Mitch Bensman blasted a homer, his fourth of the season, in the seventh.
Hoying retired the side, in order, in the bottom of the seventh to preserve the victory.
Mitch Knight went 3-for-3 to pace the Raiders.
It should be an interesting showdown Thursday. Russia coach Bill Shoffner will battle wits against his high school coach of Sidney years ago, Lehman’s Dave King.
Mimicking the football team, Minster’s baseball team started the season 6-7. But since then, the Wildcats have won 13 of 14 games and find themselves in the D-IV regional semi-finals after defeating MAC foe Parkway 5-0 Friday at Coldwater High School.
Minster (19-8) will face National Trail at Springfield High School Thursday at 5:00 PM.
Starting pitcher Adam Niemeyer went the distance and blanked Parkway on just five hits. Niemeyer leads the team in hitting with a .434 average.
The Wildcats plated one run in the fifth inning and added four more in the sixth to pad the lead. Doug Huber, Ben Heitbrink, and Brett Meiring all reached base with no outs. Ryan Hoying singled home two runs and Chase Paxson singled two more runs later in the inning.
In recent years, the dominant spring sport at Fort Loramie has been the baseball team. However, in a season of many firsts, the girls softball team has been stealing all the headlines.
After capturing first-ever SCL title with a 12-0 record, winning the most games in school history with 26, the Redskins captured their first-ever district title Friday by defeating Southeastern 2-1. Now, Fort Loramie (27-4) will face Covington (23-4) for the first time ever in the D-IV regional semi-finals Wednesday at Tipp City at 5:00 PM.
And the key to Loramie’s success has been pitchers Paige Ordean and Denise Marchal. Both have been brilliant. Check these stats: Ordean has pitched 95 innings, striking out 83 while walking just 12 with an ERA of 1.77 and posting a 13-2 record. Marchal has pitched 87 innings with 74 strikeouts and 7 walks to go with a 1.85 ERA and a 12-2 mark.
The offense isn’t hurting for runs either. Six starters are hitting over .300, led by Tessa Benanzer with a .468 average. She leads the area in runs scored with 38. Talk about double the trouble, Macy Turner has 11 doubles and Darian Rose has 10. Pam Meyer leads the team in home runs with 5 and Rose leads the team with 29 RBIs.
Switching from the diamonds to the cinders, track stars Jasmine Glover and Gretchen Walter completed district triples. Sidney‘s Glover swept the 100m and 300m hurdles and won the high jump in the D-I meet at Troy High School Wednesday and Friday. She recorded a PR in the 100m with a 15.07 and a 46.91 in the 300m. The junior also cleared 5′.
Lehman’s Walter swept the 100m (12.43), 200m (25.44), and 400m (58.16) Friday at St. Paris High School. The D-III defending state champ in the 400m is just excited to be running. She has missed most of the season with a quad muscle strain.
Both girls advance to the regionals Wednesday. The D-I is at UD Welcome Stadium and the D-III is at Troy High School.
Other regional track qualifiers include Lehman’s Justin Stewart in the 400m (50.36), Dexter Bensman of Anna in the 100m (11.36) and the 200m (22.56), Russia’s Luke Pohlman in the 1600m (4:20.35), and Dillon Webster of New Bremen set a meet record in the 800m with a 1:54.99 time.
The Anna boys relay teams were dominant, sweeping the 800m in 1:31.35 and the 400m in 43.86 (meet record). The foursome included Brady Cates, Danny Stewart, Cole Furgason, and Dexter Bensman.
Other notable performances by the girls, Tammy Berger of Versailles won both the 1600m in 5:10.09 and the 3200m in 11:46.44. Fort Loramie’s Janel Olberding won the 800m with a 2:17.83 clocking.
CHIPS & SALSA
The new divisions and regions have been established for the upcoming 2011 and 2012 football seasons. And Region 24 from Division VI is by far the most impressive and toughest region in the state. Consider this, Region 24 has seven bonafide state contenders in Marion Local, Lehman, St. Henry (new), Minster, Ada (new), Fort Loramie, and Springfield Central Catholic. This region boasts three state titles, eight state appearances, and 12 regional final teams the past five seasons. Region 8 has three state titles, but only seven regional final teams. Region 22 has three state titles, but only four regional final teams. And Region 17 has three state titles, but only three regional final teams.
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