Newton senior Austin Tippie struck out 10 and held Russia scoreless until the sixth inning in the Indians’ 5-1 victory in a Division VII region semifinal. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Jeff Gilbert)
The Newton Indians are on the doorstep of a trip to state for the first time, finally defeating tournament nemesis Russia.
Cedarville, OH – The Newton baseball team erected program-defining milestones Tuesday afternoon on the breezy Cedarville University baseball diamond.
Foremost, the Indians won a Division VII regional semifinal to advance to the first regional final in program history. They hadn’t won a district title in 31 years until last week. That’s a lot of baseball and a lot of disappointment.
“We’re getting into some uncharted territory where our program’s really never been before,” Newton senior ace Austin Tippie said. “It’s kind of awesome to be the first people to get there.”
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On Wednesday, the Indians will play for the next milestone, a trip to Akron for their first state final four, farther from Pleasant Hill than they’ve ever played inside Ohio.
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The Indians tossed gloves in the air and hugged each other to celebrate the accomplishment for all that it means. But deep inside their baseball souls, where competitive instincts pound loud like a barrel to a fastball and a fastball to a catcher’s mitt, one other accomplishment meant the world to the Indians.
Who they beat to do it.
Newton won 5-1 against Russia, the dominant team in the region in recent years with four straight trips to Akron and one state title. In head coach Jordan Kopp’s 10 seasons, Russia has ended his season half those years. When the Newton seniors were freshmen, they lost a district final to Russia in a walk off.
The Raiders aren’t who they used to be at 15-13, but they improved as the season progressed, play as scrappy and as fundamental as ever and were the team to beat until they weren’t.
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“To be able to say we beat Russia is great,” Tippie said. “They’re a great team, and to be able to win that is amazing.”
The Indians (23-4) will be back in Cedarville at 5 p.m. Wednesday to face Delphos St. John’s, an 8-1 winner over Fort Loramie.
“Those kids aren’t satisfied,” Kopp said. “Our goal tomorrow is going to be to win the game, and we have a lot of confidence.”
Newton’s Rhett Koffer cruises into third base with a standup triple in the first inning, sparking the Indians to an early 2-0 lead.
The Indians are always confident with Tippie on the mound. He is 9-1 with an ERA under one, has struck out 94 in 58 1/3 innings and will pitch in college at Division II Thomas More. On Tuesday, he held the Raiders to five hits, walked four and struck out 10.
“Honestly, I couldn’t have felt better,” Tippie said. “Funny enough, coming to this game, I actually was coming off of a cold, so I didn’t know how I was going to perform. But once I got up on the mound, I was feeling really smooth, really consistent.”
Tippie’s high 80s fastball and ability to work ahead in the count kept the Raiders from stringing much together. Then his slider and changeup either dropped into the zone for a strike, worked off the plate to create swings and misses or weren’t hit hard. The game plan, according to Kopp, was to keep the Raiders off balance with different pitches.
“I was feeling confident, feeling like I could really put the pressure on Russia,” Tippie said. “Once I saw that a lot of my pitches were working, I was really confident, and I was able to really get some guys out.”
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Russia had some chances to keep pace. Michael Voisard led off the bottom of the first with a triple over the right fielder’s head. But two strikeouts and a fly ball stranded Voisard. Newton catcher Will Bowser threw out a base stealer for the second out in the second. Right fielder Brady Plieman doubled a runner off first in the third for an inning-ending double play. The Raiders left the bases loaded in the fifth.
“We’ve hardly seen that much velocity this year,” Russia coach Kevin Phlipot said. “The pitching depth in our area velocity wise is not there. This is the only time we’ve seen somebody throw north of 82 maybe.”
Finally, in the sixth, Maddox Goubeaux doubled home a run to avoid the shutout.
Newton’s Brooks Flory reaches first on a throwing error that allowed Austin Tippie to score the second run of the first inning.
“We did our best to try to simulate that speed in BP, and I thought we did a wonderful job,” Phlipot said. “We weren’t late on his fastballs. I guess we were cheating on the fastball, and when he broke a few off, we looked a little rough.”
While Tippie kept the home line on the scoreboard clean until the sixth, he and his teammates got busy putting numbers on the top line.
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Rhett Koffer hit a one-out triple in the first inning and scored on Tippie’s single. Tippie scored for a 2-0 lead when a double play attempt that would have ended the inning turned into a throwing error to first base.
“It definitely boosts your confidence and your team’s confidence a ton, which helps tremendously, especially in games like these,” Tippie said of the early runs. “You’re playing tough teams, confidence and momentum is everywhere, and whoever has the most momentum is usually going to win the game.”
Russia starter Maddox Goubeaux kept his team in the game.
Russia left-hander Maddox Goubeaux put the Indians down in order in the second with his unorthodox, low-to-the-ground delivery. But Tippie led off the third with a single and scored on freshman Brooks Flory’s single for a 3-0 lead.
The Indians sent seven batters to the plate in the fourth and scored their final two runs on a Cole Alexander double and a fielding error. After that, Goubeaux pitched two scoreless innings before leaving the mound after the sixth.
“They had a really good pitcher, throwing probably low 80s, decent slider, but to be honest, we were on him from the start,” Tippie said. “We were putting good swings on balls, not chasing too much. We were seeing the slider a lot better, which was better than what we had done in the past.”
That Russia won a district title with lots of unanswered preseason questions did not surprise Phlipot.
Newton second baseman Brooks Flory tags out Sam Prenger on a stolen base attempt in the second inning.
“You’re always optimistic at the beginning of the season, and our pitching staff was enough to get us back here,” he said. “I just was uncertain on how we would hit, and offensively it was our probably our weak link early on.”
The Raiders also struggled on defense until Phlipot put sophomore Evan Smith at third and moved some others around into more natural positions. Then the pitching and defense worked together and timely hitting improved and they turned around a 6-8 start to the season, won three in a row and made a good tournament run.
But this is Newton’s season in Division VII, at least through Tuesday. St. John’s, a team full of state championship basketball players who know a lot about winning, is the next hurdle to get to where the Indians want to go.
“There’s always been chatter that, especially with the talent that we’ve had on the team these past couple years, that we would possibly be able to make it far,” Tippie said. “It’s always been in the air, but we’ve usually made some costly mistakes that have cost us the trip. But this year it seems like we have a pretty solid shot.”
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