'We really believed': Defending state champ Hiland wins district title
SUGARCREEK — After pounding their way past their first three tournament opponents with relative ease by a combined 35 runs, Hiland found itself in a catfight with some feisty, upset-minded Tigers in the Div. IV East District championship Wednesday at Garaway.
Brady Yoder then closed the door on the Tigers in the seventh to secure the 8-5 win and send the defending Div. IV state champions (23-5) to the Lancaster Regional semifinal at 3 p.m. Thursday, against Reedsville Eastern. The Tigers bow out at 19-11.
Fifth-seeded Strasburg had top-seeded Hiland on the ropes, clawing its way to a 5-3 lead in the sixth inning before Hiland senior Cody Yoder launched a grand slam over the left field fence off reliever Caden Dugan to give the Hawks a 7-5 advantage. After two outs, Kaden Kandel added a triple and scored on a wild pitch for an 8-5 lead.
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"It felt pretty good," Cody Yoder said. "I was really just looking to do my job — bases loaded with less than two outs, I was trying to hit it hard somewhere. I got a good pitch and just drove it."
Yoder said he had some big hits in the state tournament run last year, but none of them were home runs, so they didn't quite compare to the way he felt after his grand slam.
"That was the exact guy we wanted at the plate in that situation," Hiland coach Chris Dages said. "The result didn't surprise me one bit. He's a senior. He's been there before and he's got the drive. He's very passionate and wants to win. He wasn't going to give that at-bat away for anything."
The Hawks spotted starter Finn Schneider a 2-0 lead in the second inning on a single by Kandel and an error on a hot shot to short by Grady Monigold. Sophomore Logan Yoder then drove home one run with a double, and Wyatt Miller added a sacrifice fly to plate the second run.
Hiland missed an opportunity to pad its lead in the third when the Hawks had runners on second and third with one out, before Strasburg's sophomore starter Drew Lancaster wriggled off the hook by inducing a ground out to first and a fly out to center to escape the threat.
The Hawks made it 3-0 in the bottom of the fourth on a walk, a single by Miller, another walk and a sacrifice fly by Cody Yoder, who finished 2-for-3 with five RBI.
Schneider had held the Tigers to no runs on three hits through four innings, but in the fifth, Strasburg struck for four runs to take a 4-3 advantage.
With one out, a walk to Avery Keffer and back-to-back singles by Micah McVay and Lancaster loaded the bases. Hunter McKenzie lined a single to center to tally the Tigers' first run and ending the senior's day on the hill for the Hawks.
Derek Rissler greeted reliever Kandel with a smash to the gap for a three-run double and a 4-3 Strasburg lead.
Singles by Brodie Hurst and Keffer and a walk to McVay loaded the bases for Strasburg in the sixth with one out. A sacrifice fly by Lancaster made it 5-3 Tigers, but an infield pop out allowed the Hawks to escape any further damage.
"I thought we had a little dip in energy. We got a little complacent with a three-run cushion there," Yoder said. "But we did our jobs and pushed a couple across when we needed to. This wasn't the prettiest win ever, but at this point, a win is a win."
And it all started with back-to-back walks to Logan Yoder and Miller to open the bottom of the sixth.
"Drew just ran out of gas," Strasburg coach Mike Becker said of his sophomore hurler. "He started the year as a relief guy but we just kept giving him more work as the year went on. The last two weeks he threw some really good games, including a complete game in our sectional final. We felt really good about giving him the ball tonight. He throws three pitches and he throws them for strikes.
"He got through a pretty good lineup," the coach continued. "They hit some balls hard, but we made some plays behind him. For a sophomore, a young kid, this was quite an accomplishment. We brought Caden in, another sophomore in a tough spot. Hiland is No. 1 in the state for a reason. They executed. And Yoder didn't miss. He hit it hard."
Dugan relieved Lancaster with two on and no one out. Caden Coblentz beat out a bunt to load the bases and Yoder promptly unloaded them in grand style.
"There's always one game where you face some serious adversity, and hopefully, this was the one," Dages said. "The guys did a phenomenal job. They had confidence in themselves; they knew they were going to be able to put some runs up, and came back and did that, putting the pressure back on them.
"As often as we've been able to make it to regionals the past couple of years — not many teams get to do that one time — these guys have been working with that as one of the goals in mind," he continued. "Obviously, we want to go to state, but we've got to take one step at a time, and this was a big one.
"This just builds from year to year," Dages said. "Younger guys see it, and then they kind of make it their own once it's their turn, and they know what they've got to do because they've seen it done. It just kind of feeds off of each other from year to year."
Kandel earned the win in relief of Schneider. He struck out two, walked one and gave up three hits. The junior also banged out three hits and scored a pair. Brady Yoder notched the save issuing a walk in the scoreless seventh.
Lancaster singled and doubled, scored a run and drove one home and Hurst went 2-for-3 and scored a run for the Tigers.
"Our kids believed. We really believed," Becker added. "We've been playing really good baseball the past four weeks. I'm glad we got this chance tonight."
This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Baseball: Hiland beats upset-minded Strasburg in district title game
