AJ Harlamert shows some of Coldwater’s athleticism during Saturday’s 10-0 shutout over Russia. (Press Pros feature photos Lee Woolery)
The top-ranked Coldwater Cavaliers rode Mason Welsch’s one-hit shutout, cruising to a 10-0 win against Russia…while the Cavs’ bats simply overpowered Russia’s formidable pitching.
Russia, OH – There’s no team sport quite like baseball, but Saturday Coldwater might’ve been able to get the job done with just a pitcher and a catcher.
Junior Mason Welsch tossed a shutout, allowed just one hit, and combined with catcher AJ Harlamert on offense for five hits and two walks on eight plate appearances.
The Minster Bank proudly sponsors the state tournaments on Press Pros Magazine.com.
The dynamic duo involved themselves in all ten runs of the 10-0 drubbing, batting in six runs, and scoring the other four.
The D-III #1 Cavs move to 15-1 on the year, rebounding from their first loss of the year on Tuesday to Versailles. Russia had been shut out just once this year back in their second game, but Welsch’s fastballs guided them to their second blanking of the scoreboard, and a 12-4 record.
“I just came in locked in,” Welsch said. “We all knew Russia’s a tough team and we’d have to battle, but when you come in locked in, a win like that is what happens.”
Welsh struck out five batters and walked just two.
“Mason always brings the energy, always battles, and gives us a chance to win every time he’s up on the mound,” Coldwater coach Cory Klenke said.
He gave them more than a chance today. But Russia coach Kevin Phlipot said it wasn’t a waste of a Saturday morning, but rather a lesson worth learning.
Coldwater’s Mason Welsch was dominant with his 1-hit shutout. “This is the caliber of pitching we need to see,” said Russia coach Kevin Phlipot.
“This is the caliber pitching we wanna see,” Phlipot said. “If we want to make a postseason run we need to be able to hit this kind of pitching and make the adjustments, but today we didn’t.”
The final tally only tells the tale of the second of two acts that unfolded at Russia Community Ball Diamond.
Both Welsch and Russia’s Jude Counts rode no-hitters through three innings. And in those first three, it looked like Russia held the slightest of advantages and was more likely to break through.
Counts struck out 5 of the first ten batters and allowed just one baserunner in the first three innings, whereas Welsch struck out just two, and allowed more baserunners. In the second he hit Zeb Schulze with a pitch and walked Micah Grieshop, but escaped unscathed after a 4-3 double play.
The pitching duel put a draw on the scoreboard, but it still felt like the Raiders held an edge.
Yet it was Coldwater’s Harlamert who cracked Counts’ no-hit bid first with a lead-off triple into right-center field in the top of the fourth.
“Counts was throwing pretty hard, so I went to a two-strike approach immediately and got ahead of the count,” Harlamert said. “I was guessing fastball and caught one over the plate and hit it in the gap. Hitting’s contagious. Once we get one we normally follow it up with a bunch, so once I started it I knew the boys would get behind me.”
It took a while for the hitting disease to spread, but the Cavs made do without whacking the ball all too often in the fourth. They bunted for a base hit, took three walks, took a pitch square in the middle of the back and stole four bases. Most importantly, they broke up the shutout with three runs.
Pla-Mor lanes proudly sponsors coverage of bowling on Press Pros Magazine.com
“They’re aggressive running the bases,” Phlipot said. “When they finally got guys on base they showed their athleticism. We have it too, but you can’t steal first base.”
Schulze ruined Welsch’s no-hitter in the bottom of the fourth with the Raiders’ first and only hit – a double to right field.
If hitting is indeed contagious, that doesn’t explain why it never caught on for Russia, but it does explain the epidemic that spread through the Coldwater dugout in the fifth.
Coldwater’s Cody Depweg takes a healthy cut, helping Coldwater to their 15th win of the season.
After consecutive doubles by Braylen and AJ Harlamert (AJ’s second of three extra-base hits), Russia handed the reins to Cooper Unverferth on the mound. But the bats didn’t stop clanging and three more Cavaliers trotted across home plate.
Coldwater brought more of the same in the sixth, ravaging both pitchers they saw for four more runs, enough to head home an inning early.
“We’ve got too good of hitters and too much speed to play seven innings and not breakthrough eventually,” Klenke said.
Welsch only got better as the game went on, retiring all six batters he faced in the final two innings.
“In warmups my curveball was getting away, and early in the game it started struggling a little bit, so I just started pumping fastballs the whole time, then finally got the curveball back.”
The late-arrival of the good version of his breaking ball tied Russia batters in knots, looking to recover the square contact they had in the early going, but finding mostly grounders and thin air.
Minster Dental proudly support area sports of all sorts on Press Pros.
For good measure Welsch ripped an RBI double in the top of the sixth to complete his offensive day of two walks, two hits, three stolen bases, and two runs. It might be overly cliche to draw a Shohei Ohtani comparison, but you can’t play a more complete baseball game than Welsch did today.
“We had that chemistry going,” Harlamert said. “He was painting all his spots and making all the right pitches. Credit to our defense too, they made all the plays behind him we needed them to make”
Russia’s Hayden Quinter was forced to contribute on defense…Coldwater allowed the Raiders just one base hit in a 10-0 shutout.
They committed just one error, an understandable drop of a pop fly that the wind took hold of.
Moving forward, Coldwater gets the easy job: ride the wave of momentum and keep winning big.
“This game was a big one,” Welsch said. “We wanna take it far this year, and this was a big step in knowing we can do it because they threw a guy who is a good pitcher and throws hard.”
Russia’s task is a little tougher: learn a few lessons, and move on.
“This game helps us get to our goal,” Phlipot said. “Our goal is making a tournament run. That was tournament-style pitching. We haven’t seen that level of velocity so far. Now we have to adapt to that and see how good we are. If we can make some adjustments, we’ll be fine.”
But if anyone is up to that challenge, it’s this resilient gang of Raiders.
That’s what coach Klenke thought too.
“We’re not ten runs better than Russia,” Klenke said. “Credit to them, they’re a great program that does things the right way, our guys just showed out today.”
Logan Services sponsors the best area sports stories on Press Pros Magazine.com.