Could have been caught…there could have been an out, and run saved. A series of little things accumulated in the fourth inning to help deny St. Henry its fourth OHSAA state title in the 2025-’26 school year. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
It went as planned for the first three innings, and the early 2-0 lead. But mistakes and mishaps in the bottom of the fourth inning of Thursday’s state semi-final ended up costing St. Henry a chance at the fourth OHSAA state title in the same school year.
Akron, OH – When the expansion New York Mets lost 120 game in 1962, the oft-quotable manager, Casey Stengel, once said this to group of newspaper writers after the game.
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“If it weren’t for so many little things happenin’ to us,” said Stengel. “You guys wouldn’t have so many big things to write about.”
And in the bottom of he fourth inning of Thursday’s 7-2 Division VI semi-final loss to the Hiland Hawks St. Henry coach Mike Gast might have been thinking right along with Stengel. Gast, after all, knows a little baseball history, and he knows some of Casey’s best and misused verbal gaffs. And a winner of seven World Series with the New York Yankees in a ten-year period, much of what Stengel said is now better-remembered than what he did on the field.
Leading 2-0 as Berlin Hiland came to the plate in the fourth, St. Henry pitcher Max Delzeith was doing a masterful job of keeping the hard-hitting Hawks lineup at bay – off balance.
But as he faced Hiland for the second time through the lineup some of Stengel’s points about the little things began to add up.
A fly ball to dead center that travel to 390 that St. Hank’s Jack Huelsman got a poor jump on. It’s true that it’s 405 out there, and the ball came up 15 feet short, but it was catchable, nonetheless, and became a triple.
When it rains it pours…this fly ball led to further stress during the Berlin Hiland bottom of the fourth.
Moments later another hard-hit ball to left field that again, left fielder Hudson Schmitz misjudged with a prevailing wind and had the ball appear to carom off his glove. Again, hard-hit, but catchable, and it dug the hole a bit deeper for Dezeith.
Later in the inning, on a wild pitch blocked by catcher Drew Langenkamp, the Hiland runner at second attempted to take third. Langenkamp threw a knee-high seed to third baseman Owen Zimmerman, who dropped it, allowing not just one, but two runners to advance. Seconds later they both scored on an extra base hit, part of a Hiland 6-run outburst that seized the lead from St. Henry and denied them a chance at their four OHSAA state title in the same school year.
There was a nine-pitch at bat by Hiland’s Andre Yoder in which Yoder repeatedly fouled off pitches that were strikeout quality. On the ninth pitch Yoder finally got a pitch up in the zone from Delzeith and drove it for a two-run double.
Those all came in the fourth inning, but there were other moments throughout the game.
St. Henry struck out 15 times in the game. And frustrating, many of those were on shoulder-high fastballs that allowed Hiland pitcher Mike Miller to escape from bad counts and a higher pitch count.
And what’s the old baseball adage about letting a threatened hitter, or pitcher, hang around long enough? Miller would end up pitching a 7-hit complete game, striking out 15, to send the Hawks to the Division VI title game with Lake Center Christian.
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Like Casey, Gast must have known as he watched that you can only take so many so punches in a championship fight.
“We battled, and we stayed in it,” smiled during the post-game interview time. “From the first pitch to the last inning when we had a couple of singles to try to keep chipping away. So yeah….
“We battled, and we stayed in it. Max did exactly what we asked him to do today and I’m really proud of his effort. And I’m really proud of this group.”
“They’re a really good hitting team, one through nine. And they started finding some barrels (bat barrels). And the big focus for us from a pitching standpoint was not to give them any free bases. And for the most part we did pretty good. Not as good as we’d liked, but pretty good. And we were trying to challenge them inside because they’re tight to the plate, and that’s hard to do for a high school pitcher. Yeah, they’re a good team that you can’t give extra chances, and they capitalized on it there.”
15 strikeouts in a high school game amounts to exactly 71.4% of the St. Henry outs for the game. That doesn’t happen very often, anywhere.
“It’s been a few years,” Gast added with a grin.
And yes, it’s high school baseball and mistakes are bound to happen. After all, do the same things not happen to the Cincinnati Reds? To err is human.
“But I’m very proud of this group,” said Gast. “Look, they won the state Acme championship last summer, playing together as a group, and I think that had a lot to do with the kind of year we had in getting here. For sure, Max did exactly what we asked him to do today and I’m really proud of his effort, even though I know that he doesn’t feel real good about it right now.
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“But we had a really good spring. Some teams will have a good week or and a good week there. But we were good all spring (26-4).”
So yes, they did come up a couple of games short of the ‘quad’, if you will. But owing to Gast’s statement about playing Acme ball last summer and winning the state title, there was a air of fun about this particular 26-4 – a group that through football, basketball and baseball enjoyed playing together as much as any group of athletes you can find in OHSAA sports. They accomplished a lot along the way.
And despite losing to one of the state’s best high school teams Thursday there must have been a sense, too, that they were playing with house money. Even 76-game win streaks have to come to an at some point.
And a final statement about community baseball being played in places like St. Henry, Coldwater, Minster, Versailles, Fort Loramie and Russia. Count the number of OHSAA state championships through the years since Lou Brunswick helped found Acme ball in 1960. They’re still talked about, and they’re still building champions.
There are the bad days, sure.
But overall, the kids who play are still having fun playing baseball. Just the way you want it.
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