Troy coach Ty Welker believed his team could make it back to a district final even when others didn’t. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Jeff Gilbert)
Mason defeats Troy at this stage of the tournament for the second straight year. And the Trojans, who surpassed expectations by making it this far, will long remember that it was Jake Hanley who they couldn’t hit and who swung a powerful bat.
Centerville, OH – Halley’s Comet comes around every 75-79 years. But the Mason Comets have a baseball player who is a much more frequent phenomenon.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State basketball and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Jake Hanley.
After what he did to Troy in Thursday’s Division I district final at Centerville High School, the Trojans hope it’s another 75 years before they see the likes of Hanley again.
The Koverman Staley Dickerson agencies sponsor the Three Rivers Conference on Press Pros Magazine.com.
At 6-foot-6 and full of muscle, he was a man at work. Hanley, a right-hander, pitched a complete game one-hitter, zipping fastballs past the Trojans in the low 90s at the very least. And when Hanley swung the bat, you could hear the thunder.
Batting second in the top of the first, the left-handed hitting Hanley sent a pitch into orbit over the tall, batter’s eye fence to straight-away center and well beyond the 380 notation on the wall for a 1-0 lead. Then, on the next pitch Hanley saw leading off the third, he lined a laser over the left-field fence right past the American flag. The ball didn’t have time to salute on its hurried flight.
Final score: Hanley’s Comets 5, Troy 0.
As a pitcher, Mason’s Jake Hanley allowed Troy one hit and struck out nine.
Troy pitcher Caleb Akins got a first-hand look at everything Hanley accomplished.
The homers: “That first one I hung my changeup. The second one I’m surprised. I knew he was good, but curveball low and outside? He just went across and got it. There’s not much more to it. He just beat me.”
The fastballs: “It was quick. I kind of expected it, but it’s still surprising. Nice off speed … fastball can blow right by you.”
Hanley, when he’s done playing high school ball this spring, will report to the Indiana Hoosiers this summer. He said he was originally recruited as a hitter. But he recently had a long talk with the pitching coach. The Hoosiers might need to make room for Hanley to do both.
Hanley said he had never hit two homers in the same game. He didn’t even realize the homers had come on successive pitches.
“It’s kind of just something that happens and you’re like, ‘Well, that just happened,’ and you don’t really realize it until you’re sitting in the dugout,” he said. “Guys asked me what pitch I saw. I was like, ‘I don’t know.’ When I get in that mode, where my brain’s not thinking and I’m just playing baseball, it’s pretty fun.”
Logan Services sponsors the best area sports stories on Press Pros Magazine.com.
More fun is to be had for the Comets in the regional semifinals next Thursday in Oxford. They will face Cincinnati Elder, a 13-2 winner over Centerville in six innings. Vandalia Butler will face eight-time state champion Cincinnati Moeller in the other semifinal. Butler defeated Loveland 1-0 on a six-hit, zero-strikeout performance by Mason Recker. He also singled in the only run he needed in the first inning.
Despite all the fun Hanley and the Comets had Thursday, Troy reflected on the fun season it enjoyed in finishing 22-8 a second straight season and meeting Mason in a district final for the second straight year.
As a hitter, Mason senior Jake Hanley homered twice and on successive pitches to power the Comets’ offense.
“Outside that huddle nobody expected us to be in the same spot we were last year with the same record we had last year and graduating 16 kids,” Troy coach Ty Welker said. “You want to get hits – obviously that’s what you have to do to win the game – but when you’re playing top competition, you got to dig deep and get it done.”
Digging deep wasn’t the problem for the Trojans. But getting it done against Hanley, and a team with an Ohio State commit and another who just decommitted from Auburn, required some offensive breaks the Trojans didn’t get. Matthew Hempker’s single in the second inning was their only hit. That hit was erased by a double play. And the Trojans were retired in order in the third, fourth, sixth and seventh innings.
“I think we’re a good offensive team, and obviously he’s a pretty good pitcher, so we were probably a little outmatched,” Welker said. “But I didn’t feel like we gave up. I feel like our guys battled the whole game. They kept their heads up and didn’t get down on themselves. And I’d go right back at it with those same guys and battle again tomorrow.”
Ever-Green Lawn and Landscaping supports Ohio State sports on Press Pros.
Akins, who will pitch in college at Division III Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, made the Comets work for their runs on five hits and five walks in six innings. He struck out seven.
“I knew coming in that they like to swing it early on,” Akins said. “They weren’t going to be taking many, so I was just trying to mix in everything I could and try to get ahead and not get behind. Because I knew if I got behind, even with two balls, they were ready to swing. It’s a tough thing to pitch against.”
Troy coach Ty Welker share encouraging words with pitcher Caleb Akins after leaving the mound Thursday for the final time after the sixth inning.
Akins pitched the final inning in Tuesday’s win over Beavercreek. And Welker said if the Trojans had won, he would be ready to put Akins on the mound again as soon as possible.
“Caleb came out and battled all day,” Welker said. “What could you ask more of from a kid? If there’s two pitches you’d like to have back it would be to the Hanley guy, but he’s one of the best players in the state of Ohio. He battled and there’s nothing to be ashamed of, that’s for sure.”
What Akins really wants back are the walks. Two Mason runs were scored by players who walked.
“For me it was a struggle because my biggest pet peeve is walking people,” he said. “I’d much rather someone get a hit off me than I walk them. I was just trying to manage that, but at the same time it’s a good team. I can’t just stay mad and not pitch. I just had to keep going, keep attacking.”
Which is exactly what he did when Hanley came to bat. He just didn’t expect to see something he’d never seen before – twice – and hope’s to never see again … at least for 75 years.
Hanley’s Comet.
The Arbogast family of dealerships is pleased to sponsor your favorite sports on Press Pros.