Badin baseball advances to OHSAA DII regional final, CHCA falls to CJ
MASON, Ohio – Badin’s baseball team moved one step closer to a third consecutive trip to the OHSAA Division II state semifinals.
The Rams outlasted Hebron Lakewood 9-2 in a regional semifinal Thursday night at Mason.
Badin improved to 29-1 and will face Chaminade-Julienne (26-5) in the regional final 5 p.m. Friday at Mason. Badin is 2-0 against its Greater Catholic League-Coed rival this year, winning a pair of 3-0 shutouts in April.
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“We're always looking for a dogfight there,” said Badin senior Rodney Rachel. “They’re rivals. They’re in our league and it's going to be packed. We’re going to have a lot of fans here. It might be hostile, but we can't control that, we can just control us having fun and playing our game.”
The Rams faced a Lancers team that has a recent history of postseason success but struggled this season before going on an upset-filled run to get here. Lakewood was the No. 10 seed in its district and avenged earlier losses to two league rivals to win the district championship. The Lancers finished 12-16.
Rachel, one of Badin’s top hitters, emotional leaders and defensive leaders at center field, drove in three runs in his first two at-bats. He hit an RBI double in the first inning and a two-run homer in the third.
Freshman standout Chandler Taylor had two hits in his first two at-bats, a single and a triple. Taylor, the No. 3 hitter, and cleanup hitter Rachel combined to hit for the cycle in those first three innings.
They helped the Rams pick up 13 hits on the night.
“We just want to get out, get ahead, put the pressure on them and keep putting pressure on,” Rachel said.
Badin quickly jumped on Lakewood ace lefthander Tyler Bebout, a senior headed to play for Capital University.
Lucas Moore led off with a single, and Brycen Fox reached on an error as he grounded into what could have been a double play ball.
Taylor launched a drive into the gap in right center field and reached third easily as two runs scored. Rachel drove him in with a double, and the Rams led 3-0.
“We didn't make a couple plays early that led to runs,” said Lakewood head coach Chuck Davis. “We turn our double play and catch a pop-up and we get out of the inning without scoring a run. The guys, they played really, really hard. We played well, we just got beat today. They’re very well coached, great program. They're here every year.”
In the third, Taylor led off with a single, and Rachel launched a drive over the fence in left field to make it 5-0. Badin plated a run later in the inning on an error.
“We’ve been practicing lefties all week,” said Badin head coach Brion Treadway. “We had some good left-handed pitchers throwing us BP this past week, so it’s good to see that it paid off.”
Lakewood scored twice in the fourth off senior Justin Hoevel, who improved to 9-0 on the season. He allowed six hits and the Rams committed one error.
Badin scored three more times in the seventh off a relief pitcher.
Senior Reese Anzalone hit an RBI single. Chase Luebbe singled, Moore was hit by a pitch, senior Brycen Fox hit an RBI single for his first hit of the game, and Taylor knocked in his third RBI of the game with a groundout.
Badin beat CJ twice by identical 3-0 scores on April 3 and April 13. Hoevel pitched a three-hit shutout the first time. In the rematch, senior Nik Copenhaver pitched a gem in that game, giving up five hits and striking out 11 in 6.1 innings.
Copenhaver (5-0, 0.46 ERA) and lefty Aiden Van De Hatert (5-0, 0.00) are the likely starters Friday. Treadway said the coaching staff has yet to decide which one to throw.
Chaminade-Julienne 5, Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy 1
In a battle of Eagles from private schools, the Dayton-based team flew away to the regional final after some key hits in a four-run sixth inning to eliminate the Cincinnati-based Eagles. CHCA, the MVC-Scarlet champion, finished 19-11. CJ advances to face Badin in Friday’s regional final.
Leading 1-0 in the top of the sixth inning, CJ loaded the bases with no outs against CHCA ace Jeffrey Levin, a junior. Two of the hits were infield choppers, but it was enough to send him to the dugout in favor of reliever Zach O’Connell.
The green Eagles of Chaminade-Julienne greeted O’Connell with a two-run single from Patrick Gonter-Dray and the Eagles plated two more runs to take a 5-0 lead.
Levin came into the game with a 6-1 record and 0.79 ERA. He allowed only one hit through five innings, but but had control troubles.
“He’s just been great for us all season,” said CHCA head coach Tony Schulz. “He’s been our guy in big games and he was awesome today. They had a couple balls find some grass and they were able to capitalize.”
CJ scored its first run in the fourth inning, when Charlie Hoagland singled to right for the first hit off of Levin. Hoagland advanced on a sacrifice bunt, advanced to third, and scored on a sacrifice fly.
Meanwhile, the purple Eagles of CHCA couldn’t cash in on several scoring opportunities against CJ ace Jackson Frasure, who improved to 6-0 on the season. He came in allowing only 18 hits in 37 innings, with 52 strikeouts.
CHCA had a runner on second in the third inning with no outs when Landen Ivy led off with a single and went to second on an error.
With one out, Ivy tried to steal third. CJ catcher Julian Eversole threw to third to get him but the ball went into the outfield and Ivy scored. However, it was called back as batter Jake Murphy was called for interference.
The biggest blow came in the fourth, when CHCA loaded the bases with one out by drawing three walks. Frasure struck out the next two batters to end the threat.
In the fifth, CHCA had runners on first and third with one out, but Frasure induced a double play.
Then, trailing 5-1 in the seventh, the purple Eagles left the bases loaded again.
“Yeah, it was just one of those days where we got a lot of base runners on base, just needed that one ball put in play, that one big hit,” Schulz said. “And it just didn't happen for us today. Our guys battled and got themselves into deep counts against a guy like Frasure on the mound. We did what our game plan was, get him into deep counts and we just couldn't get that ball in play.”
Senior sendoff
CHCA seniors are Aiden Fox, Ethan Long, Tyler Ooten, Johnathan Russell, Joey Shafer and Ty Sweeney.
Long, Russell, Sweeney and Ooten started against CJ
Long hit .337 with a team-high 22 RBIs. Russell hit .319 with 18 RBIs and a team-high 16 steals and 24 runs scored. Sweeney had 12 RBIs. Shafer was 4-3 with a 2.62 ERA in 40 innings. Hon was 1-3 with a 3.28 ERA.
“We had a lot of a lot of guys in new spots, a lot of new guys getting opportunities at the varsity level and it was a struggle early for us,” Schulz said. “We knew it was going to be hard early, but they peaked late and had a really nice tournament run, district title and coming here. It's a lot for these guys to be proud of.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Badin baseball advances to OHSAA DII regional final, CHCA falls to CJ
