Since 1947 and the Wally Post era, leave the ball up in the zone against St. Henry and you suffer the consequences. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Not to sound cliche’, but winning at the baseball state tournament is usually a matter of who pitches best, and who executes. Both, I believe, give St. Henry and Delphos St. John more than a fighting chance.
I’ve lost count of how many people asked me over the past weekend…how do you like St. Henry’s chances against Berlin Hiland in the Division VI state baseball tournament.
And can Delphos St. John (19-7) play with Tiffin Calvert in Division VII? One Calvert convert actually emailed to assure me that…”I read your column on MAC baseball. All fluff. Calvert is way too much for Delphos!”
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Well, call it fluff if you want to, but since 2007 I’ve seen so many, many baseball teams that were way too much for an overlooked opponent come home from the tournament shaking their heads, saying, “I can’t believe we let that team beat us.”
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My first, and most poignant, example is the Division IV 2007 championship game between Fort Loramie and a heavily-favored team from 8-time state champion Newark Catholic. Loramie coach Bill Sturwold outwitted Newark, a team that feasted on the fastball, by starting a soft-throwing lefthander named Andy Long, and let Long work his way one time through the Newark batting order. It was enough to throw off their timing, and then Sturwold brought in hard-throwing Jordan Goldschmidt who further flummoxed the frustrated Green Wave. Loramie scored four runs in the top of the seventh, and held on to win their first baseball title, 4-0.
Another example was the 2013 Division III game between defending champion Wheelersburg and Bloom-Carroll, who was actually favored to knock off the Pirates because it was believed they had played the tougher schedule of bigger schools throughout the season. But Wheelersburg had a pitcher named Wade Martin who hardly ever walked anyone, and somehow withstood his defense committing five errors behind him. The ‘Berg got a couple of timely hits in the seventh inning, and came from behind to win that game, 5-4.
Two very different games that highlight the fact that if you pitch…or if you play good defense…and if you don’t play good defense you pitch well enough to give yourself a chance..you might get the hit you need at the end to actually win the game.
They hit, and they hit hard…Hiland (24-4) averaged 10 runs a game this spring and feasts on the fastball.
Remember, this is high school baseball, the unexpected can, and does, happen, and the record book is full of games that should have been won by someone else…and weren’t!
First, the game between St. Henry and Berlin Hiland, the Hawks winners three times in the past ten seasons, including back-to-backs in 2024 and 2023.
Hiland is a team that you think about in terms of run production, because in recent years they’ve hit it all over the park, and this year averaged scoring ten runs a game. Very fundamentally sound team, and they usually have a competitive tandem of arms on the mound.
But like all teams, the offense can be disrupted by changing speeds and changing eye-levels. In 2024, in particular, Fort Recovery gave itself a great chance to knock off the Hawks when starting pitcher Caden Grisez routinely threw breaking pitches for strike one, then expanded the strike one, forcing Berlin bats to chase. Recovery had its chances, for sure, but for want of offense, themselves, could not make a threat late in the game against the Hiland bullpen.
St. Henry (24-3) is a better-hitting team than that Berlin team was, and Mike Gast’s Redskins are swinging the bats with a lot of confidence, especially against the fastball, and you’re going to see the fastball in the state tournament, come winning time. And I have no issues with the Redskins’ ability to catch it and throw. They’ll be good enough.
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I also appreciate St. Henry’s pitching, and would not be surprised to see one of those arms come up bigger than anticipated – Max Delzeith, Owen Zimmerman, or a Hudson Schmitz. Throw strikes, don’t give Berlin any more free bases than necessary, and St. Henry can justify its position as the #3-ranked team in the final polls. Berlin Hiland, by the way, was #2. #3 against #2? It would not be a miracle.
The writer who compared Tiffin Calvert to the ’27 Yankees is right in his assumption that Calvert is solid, they’ve played a solid schedule, and like St. Henry, they play with a lot of confidence on offense. Very sound team that’s coached well, and by their scores prove that they can play either ‘banger’ ball, or ‘small’ ball. They’re 28-2-2, but what jumps out at you is a 1-0 win earlier in the year against Bishop Watterson, who I think can beat anyone. So they’re not freaked out by tight ballgames against big names.
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But Calvert might not have seen a starting pitcher as competitive as what Delphos St. John’s Cam Elwer might prove to be. Notice I said…might, because he hasn’t thrown all that many innings this year!
Elwer throws harder than most Division VII pitchers, and has a better breaking pitch than 80% of them. I’ve seen him pitch in big games before, and he enjoys the challenge of competition. He was 27-0 in basketball, and knew that opposing teams were out to stop him every night, so nerves will not be his achilles heel.
But I might question how much punch with the bats the Blue Jays might muster against an equally competitive pitcher. I saw them lose to St. Henry a month ago because three times they didn’t come up with a timely hit. But they can get on base, and they can play small ball. Get ’em on…get ’em over…can they get ’em in?
I was also impressed with Andrew Elwer, who pitched the three-hit shutout over Newton to get them to Akron, so you know they have at least one more dependable starting arm should they get through Calvert.
It’s really hard to predict high school baseball, because there are far more variables than you find in college or the major leagues.
But this much is certain. You have to make the routine plays reliably. Don’t give up free bases with walks and errors. And like Piqua coach Jim Hardman used to say, challenge teams to make plays on defense. Strike out three times fewer than they do. Get the ball in play somehow and they just might throw it away and give you the game.
And for the sake of competitive will, nothing will surprise me in Division VI, or VII. I think, overall, I think both are better this year…and perhaps as good as small-school baseball has been for a decade. And St. Henry and Berlin…and Calvert and St. John are as good as you’ll find in their respective divisions.
Or they wouldn’t be there.
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