Arcanum senior righthander Regan Christ pitched a complete-game five-hitter, striking out 12 to beat Newton. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Arcanum ace Regan Christ did the mound work and shortstop teammate Kolten Quigley provided the offense for an impressive 3-0 Arcanum win over Newton in matchup of the WOAC’s best.
Pleasant Hill, OH – In Division VI southwest region baseball Randy Baker’s Arcanum Trojans are beginning to raise both eyebrows and conversation.
“Just how good is Arcanum,” they’re beginning to ask. “And who is Regan Christ (pronounced Krist)?”
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To answer that, I defer to the ol’ perfessor, Casey Stengel, who won seven World Series during his twelve-year tenure as manager of the New York Yankees during the 50s and the 60s. It was Stengel who once famously said, “90% of this game called baseball is half pitching. You give me good pitching and we’ll all have fun.”
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And that’s what senior Regan Christ, an Ohio University commit, is giving Baker and the Trojans (5-1) after striking out 12 hitters Friday night in a 3-0, five-hit shutout over Western Ohio Athletic Conference rival Newton (4-2)…in a game that took 92 pitches by Christ and 102 minutes to play.
Now in this day the term dominating is used loosely, but there was nothing cheap or discounted by the dominance of Christ in winning his third game of the season, or the sheer stats with which he did it.
One, the fact of his striking out 12 or the 21 outs he retired.
Two, the fact that while striking out 12 he still threw less than a hundred pitches – hard to do when you strike out that many.
Three, in the third inning Christ recorded what’s called an ‘immaculate’ inning in which he struck out all three hitters, and need just nine pitches to do it.
Arcanum’s Kolten Quigney celebrates his first inning home run that turned out to be the game’s winning run.
Four, counting the third inning and the first out of the fourth Christ threw twelve straight strikes in striking out four consecutive Newton hitters.
Five, his fastball was routinely clocked at 88 and 89 miles per hour, which is really chugging it for a school in a conference known for graduating classes numbering in the 60s.
You get the idea.
“I felt really good,” said Christ, afterwards. “It felt like I was throwing harder than I did against Versailles (last week). “And of course it felt good to win because they’re solid and we’re the two best teams in the conference. And credit to their pitcher [Aaron Tippie], too, because he has a good arm and he pitched well.
“And Quigs had a great at bat in the first inning to start the game off and give us the momentum.”
‘Quigs’ is Arcanum’s shortstop Kolten Quigney, who with two outs and a runner on base in the first inning ambushed a fastball thrown by Newton ace Austin Tippie and hooked it around the foul pole in left field for a two-run homer, driving in Bryce Kramer, who had walked.
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“I was looking for the fastball,” said Quigney, who was excitable to say the least, and an emotional leader for the Trojans.
“I asked Coach Pohl (former Ohio State first baseman, Conner Pohl) what should I look for and he said…fastball. I tried to hit it hard on the ground because of the artificial turf, but I hit it and I had no idea where the ball went. I just heard someone say…’it’s over the fence’. Then Derek (Longstreth), our centerfielder, said told me it was five feet from going foul.”
Newton ace Austin Tippie allowed just three hits, while striking out 12 in a losing cause against Arcanum.
Newton pitcher Austin Tippie would remember it a bit differently, as a pitch he hung up in the strike zone, but it didn’t matter. Tippie pitched equally well, giving up just three hits while also striking out twelve, walking one, and hitting a batter.
But the game, and the moment, would ultimately belong to Arcanum, who improved to 5-1 early in the schedule and because of Randy Baker’s propensity for playing ‘small ball’ – making opposing teams play perfect defense. Typically they don’t strike out much, and have the kind of lineup that’s capable of contributing up and down the batting order.
“Best way to win a game,” said Baker. “Come out like we did in the first and Quigney hits that shot. That got us going against a real good ballclub. They’re solid defensively and when Austin Tippie throws like that they’re going to be tough to beat. Thank God we got three runs.
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“We just moved him (Quigney) into the four hole last night because he’s been seeing the ball good, and thank God we had him there tonight. The big thing was that Bryce drew the walk ahead of him. We struck out a lot tonight, but we also saw a lot of pitches and that helped us later in the game.”
Arcanum did add an important insurance run in the fifth on a walk, a sacrifice bunt, and a base hit before being retired on a 1-6-3 double play. The perfect scenario of Arcanum baseball in a tight game.
Newton coach Jordan Kopp smiled at the irony of two high school pitchers from schools that small, that talented, that threw that hard, and were competitive when it mattered the most.
“Seriously, where do you find two pitchers like Austin and Regan in a conference like ours capable of showing what they did tonight?” he said. “It’s a shame we don’t play again but we only see teams once in our league.”
Newton threatened twice. In the fourth, when with one out they had back-to-back hits on a line drive and a pop fly to center field that no one took charge of catching. It fell for a hit. But with two outs and runners on second and third, Regan Christ blew away the third out with his ninth strikeout of the game.
And in the top of the seventh, the Indians again had a pair of hits to put runners on first and third. Again, Christ took care of matters, striking out the final out of the game.
“Nice ballgame, and two nice pitchers tonight,” added Randy Baker, who loves to win the tight ones…with a bunt and a base hit here and there, occasionally the long ball, and the kind of pitching he gets with Regan Christ on the mound.
Like Casey Stengel, they all got on the bus happy for the trip back to Darke County, and Arcanum. Proof…that 90% of baseball is half pitching!
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