photo by: Andrew Grimm
Indian Creek’s Caleb Bodo makes contact for a single during Tuesday’s regional game at Mazeroski Field against Carrollton.
CADIZ — There is an old cliche in sports that a team wants to be playing its best at the right time. The Indian Creek baseball team’s offense is doing just that.
Despite struggling at the plate in the second half of the season, the Redskins have turned it on with the bats in the tournament.
Creek slugged its way to a third run-rule win in as many tournament games on Tuesday evening, pulling away from Carrollton for a 12-2 victory in six innings at Mazeroski Field in the Division IV, Region 15 semifinals.
“These guys have turned it on these last couple games. Hitting is contagious, right?” Indian Creek head coach Mike Cottis said. “We get one guy going, and everyone gets going.
“(Three run rule wins in the tournament) is unbelievable, that’s the first time I’ve ever been a part of something like that as a player or a coach.”
The teams, both ranked in the top-10 in the state by the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association, had played two low-scoring games in the regular season, but Creek had other plans Tuesday in earning a return trip to the regional championship.
“It was almost like we were waiting around for this time of year,” Cottis said. “These guys are gamers. They got a taste of it last year and they want it again. I’m really proud of them.”
In three tournament games, Creek (22-6) has now out-scored its opponents 45-5 and ended each early via the run rule. The common denominator in those games is patience — as the Redskins have drawn at least 10 walks in all three games.
“It took a long time for them to buy into that game plan at the plate of being patient and waiting for strikes, but once they did, it has started to turn on,” Cottis said. “We’ve been working really hard at it in practice.”
Leading the charge at the plate Tuesday was Ty Householder, who smacked two homers — a two-run bomb over the fence in left in the third inning and an inside-the-park homer to the corner in right field in the fourth, while also tripling in the sixth. He came home on Sylus Hyde’s RBI single in the sixth to end the game.
“Ty did what Ty does,” Cottis said. “He’s been a great leader for us.”
Hyde had some early struggles, walking six batters in the game, but dialed back in and put up four-straight zeroes to end the game. He finished with six strikeouts and two runs allowed in going all six innings for Creek.
Behind him, Creek’s defense played errorless ball and made a couple great plays, a diving catch in left field that saved a run and ended the fop of the sixth by Ian Starkey being the highlight.
“We played unbelievable defense behind Sylus,” Cottis said. “Stan Amis made a great play (in the second), which was a huge play because Sylus was struggling a little and that helped us get out of it. Ian Starkey made an unbelievable catch out in left. After that one inning, Sylus really dialed it back in and threw lights out.”
Creek took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first, scoring a run on an error, another on a sac fly from Sal Barcalow and a third on a two-out RBI single from Logan Wedlake.
After the Warriors (20-6) got a pair of runs in the top half of the second on a two-run Jayven Johnson single, Creek again responded in the bottom half with another three-spot.
Hunter Rusnak made it 4-2 with an RBI single, Gavin Pownall drew a walk with the bases loaded for another run and Dom DeGruttola put a ball in play that drove in a run on a fielder’s choice, making it 6-2.
The next time up, after Hyde worked a 1-2-3 top half, Householder crushed his first homer to make it 8-0. After three walks loaded the bases up, Pownall hit an RBI single to make it 9-2, then DeGruttola drew a walk to make it 10-2.
Householder smacked his inside-the-parker in the fourth. Creek, in position to end the game with a run in the fifth, did not get a run in, but did bring things to an early end with Hyde’s two-out knock in the sixth.
UP NEXT
Creek will take on Chillicothe Unioto in the Region 15 championship game Thursday afternoon at Ohio University’s Bob Wren Stadium. Unioto defeated London, 1-0, in their regional semi on Tuesday. The game will be a meeting of the No. 6 and No. 7 ranked teams by the OHSBCA. The winner Thursday is headed to Akron.
“It’s a good feeling to go back to OU, we love going down there,” Cottis said.