Junior Maddox Goubeaux pitched the Raiders into the Final Four by limiting Cedarville to just one hit…the same Cedarville team that beat Fort Loramie, the same Fort Loramie that beat Russia twice! (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Smashing a young Cedarville team in the regional final, Russia claimed its fourth consecutive trip to the OHSAA baseball Final Four Thursday with incentive to spare.
Cedarville, OH – Russia standout Braylon Cordonnier has hinted throughout the year that a basketball title and a second baseball title would be a pretty good way to finish his senior year, and what’s been a memorable high school career.
Thursday afternoon, in the gathering gloom and intermittent rain at Cedarville University he became a bit more open about the possibility after the Raiders’ 11-0 run-rule thrashing of Cedarville (17-8).
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Russia, 18-11, unranked and unheralded, outside of Cordonnier who’s a prize recruit for Greg Beals at Marshall University next fall, won its fifth in a row, giving some credence to the argument that they’re peaking at just the right time, despite lacking some of the offensive firepower of the 2022 Division IV title team, and the ’23 and ’24 teams that lost to Berlin Hiland at Canal Park, in Akron.
And there is some reason for such optimism as much of the lineup accounted for the Division VII basketball title just ten weeks ago in an impressive win over Cornerstone Chrisitian out of Cleveland.
The hitting, of late, as been more robust than it was during a mid-season swoon that saw the Raiders drop three in a row and six of eight.
And the pitching, with Cordonnier repaired from a ligament tear in a finger on his throwing hand, is back to anchor the starting threesome that includes Maddox Goubeaux and do-it-all catcher/pitcher, Cooper Unverferth, all of them upper-classmen.
And to spark further confidence in that starting pitching, Goubeaux took the Cedarville mound Thursday in a regional final game without indication of nerves, or fear, and promptly shut out the Indians on one hit, a fourth-inning single against the same team that knocked out Shelby County League rival Fort Loramie two weeks ago, 2-0. And Loramie beat Russia twice during the regular season, 5-1 and 2-0!
Parker Lloyd’s double was the catalyst to the six-run fourth inning…he later scored (above).
So there was some karma at play on Thursday as Goubeaux calmly went about his business on the mound…and after a scoreless first the Raiders’ bats went about their business, scoring a pair of unearned runs on the second, three more earned runs in the third, and blew Cedarville starter Xavier Pauling and the Indians out with 6 more in the fourth, setting up the run-rule conclusion. Goubeaux set the Indians down in their half of the fifth on a strikeout (his sixth), a pop fly, and a ground out.
And the titantic fourth was efficient, as Russia made the most of a leadoff double by Parker Lloyd with a sac bunt, a wild pitch/strikeout of Cordonnier, a hit batsman, an outfield error, a sac fly to score a run, a walk, a double by Zeb Borchers and a single by Ben York. They scored six runs on just three hits, but in typical Kevin Phlipot fashion none of those base runners were gathering moss. Any ball hit to the outfield was an invitation to take the extra base, which the Raiders did, and literally ran Cedarville out of the game.
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Russia won it with 11 runs on just 6 hits, had no errors, and left two men on base.
Cedarville lost it with no runs on 1 hit, had three errors, and the consolation of a short ride home when it was over.
After the post-game ribbons and trophy presentation, and photos for the scrapbook, the conversation quickly turned to…who’s next? They’ll play the winner of Minster and Montpelier, sure enough, but they won’t know until sometime Friday afternoon because that game was rained out Thursday at Bowling Green.
Braylon Cordonnier beats the tag attempt by Cedarville catcher Micah Burr to score in the Raiders’ six-run fourth inning.
“It really doesn’t matter,” said Braylon Cordonnier, afterwards. “I was probably in the fourth grade in 2017 when Minster beat us in the championship game in Division IV (2-1), so it would be good to get a win for those guys who lost that day. I’d say that we’re familiar with Minster. Some of us have played travel baseball with them, and we know each other from basketball. There’s some good friends up there, but once you get there to play being familiar doesn’t matter because it’s straight competition.”
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“There’s no one we’d rather play than Minster,” added senior Ben York. “They’re a rival, right along with Fort Loramie, and some redemption for that game in 2017 would be nice. And we played them this year and they beat us (6-3). And obviously we’re playing better now than we were back then.”
But the maestro to their 2022 title and four trips in a row now to the Finals, had the last word, and coach Kevin Phlipot always chooses his words carefully. This was not his best team in comparison to talent lost from the previous three years – Hayden Quinter, Xavier Phlipot, Zane Shappie, et. al. – but it might represent Phlipot’s best coaching job, a subject he would be highly reticent if questioned about, so why even bother? But, he didn’t win 20 games this year and he’s still going to Akron. Isn’t that enough?
“It’s just been a successful program,” said Phlipot, post-game. “And not just this year…for four years. This group of boys…they’re winners. I don’t care what sport it is. They find a way to compete, and they find a way to win. It doesn’t matter what they’re doing, they’re successful at everything. They came out like they did and it was business-like work today.”
Does familiarity of opponent, given that it could be Minster, matter to the maestro?
“It doesn’t matter who we play, but confidence to play whoever you play is important, that’s what I’m getting at. The first time you walk into that stadium (Canal Park) you look around at its size, and it’s beautiful. The only thing that’s not beautiful is the bus ride.
“To get over the ‘wow’ and the ‘shock’ factor, and that little boy’s dream kinda’ thing, it’s important to know the process and all the waiting around you have to do before you play. So it’s important to know that, to be familiar, to have some comfort with it, and we’ve got that. The opponent? We’ll worry about that sometime later.”
“This group of boys…they’re winners. Doesn’t matter the sport, they find a way to compete, and win.” – Kevin Phlipot
He was pleased with the bats, which haven’t always pleased him, against a solid tournament-quality pitcher (Xavier Pauling) on Thursday. It may or may not be an omen, but it did come with a confident frame of mind – that experience.
“It was similar to what we saw yesterday,” said Phlipot. “The fastball played up because he threw a lot of curveballs, and the curveballs were hit and miss. We had to lay off the curveballs. We got more fastballs, and we took advantage. So you don’t know what you’re going to see, except with Minster you’d have an idea what you’ll see…but it doesn’t matter. Like I said, we’ll enjoy this for a moment.”
And no doubt, for a wonderful evening in Russia, likely to carry over through the weekend. They, uh…love their baseball in Russia.
“Yeah, talking about it, hearing about it…it’s all impressive,” Phlipot added, gathering his gear for the bus ride home and time to enjoy.
But his mind, like the other four semi-finalists for next week, was already considering the possibilities. Like he said, the past has been impressive, but it’s also left room for more…some of the redemption that Ben York talked about.
What they’ll all be talking about in Russia…this weekend!
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