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Celina's Dale Secrest, left, is tagged by St. Marys first baseman Ethan Hollandsworth after a pickoff throw from catcher Luke Rammel during Friday's Division II sectional baseball final at K.C. Geiger Park.
ST. MARYS - For 5 1/2 innings, St. Marys and Celina engaged in the pitchers' duel that most fans were expecting.
St. Marys' Brayden Sullivan took a no-hitter into the fourth inning while Celina's Brady Steinbrunner took a no-no into the fifth, but the Roughriders' first hit produced the winning run and St. Marys took advantage of errors to add five more in the bottom of the sixth to beat the Bulldogs for the second time this season, 6-0 in the Division II sectional baseball final at K.C. Geiger Park on Friday.
The Roughriders (13-12) now travel to Bluffton University next Thursday at 2 p.m. to face Western Buckeye League and Auglaize County rival Wapakoneta, which defeated Galion 6-2 on Friday.
St. Marys won the first meeting between the teams 2-1 on April 6 as Sullivan went toe-to-toe with Steinbrunner for the win. Friday, the two pitchers picked up where they left off, as Sullivan faced the minimum nine batters through the first three innings. Dale Secrest was able to draw a walk in the third inning, but was picked off first by a great throw from catcher Luke Rammel. Steinbrunner allowed a first-inning walk to Sullivan, but got through unscathed, then added another walk to Sullivan in the fourth but again saw no damage.
The Bulldogs were the first to get a hit. After Carver Harris walked to start the fourth, Nick Steinbrunner legged out an infield single. Sullivan bowed his back and got the next three outs to get out of the jam, then got through the top of the fifth and stranded a Celina runner at second.
St. Marys' Brayden Sullivan scattered three hits over seven innings in Friday's 6-0 win over Celina.
"He kept them off-balance," St. Marys coach Adam Graves said of Sullivan's effort. "The thing was, he worked out of some jams. There was a couple of times where (Celina) had guys on and Brayden did a great job working out of it. Defense came through, too."
In the bottom of the fifth, Brady Steinbrunner got things rolling with a strikeout, but Easton Craft then walked and stole second. Steinbrunner got another strikeout to bring up nine-hole hitter Caleb Felver, who blooped a single to center. Craft dashed home for the game's first run. Kasey Gross reached on an error and went to second on an uncontested steal, and Dorner brought in Zander Jones, who completed a walk on AJ Dieringer before getting a strikeout to end the inning.
"Brady's pitched well against us twice," said Graves. "It was a repeat matchup for us. He did a good job keeping us off-balanced. We got to the point of putting the ball on the ground and put some pressure on him."
"That was big," Celina coach John Dorner said of the fifth-inning run. "Part of the scouting report was first team that (scores) will have a lot more confidence and a chance to win it. That's the way it turned out."
The Roughriders put the game on ice in the bottom of the sixth, sending 10 batters to the plate. After St. Marys loaded the bases on three straight hits, Jace Turner's sacrifice fly brought home pinch-runner Colton Mabry to make it 2-0. Felver reached on an error that brought home two runs and Gross reached on an error to load the bases for Dieringer, who was hit by a pitch to bring home another run. Sullivan then helped his cause with a two-run single to cap the scoring.
"We kind of fell apart at the end," said Dorner.
Sullivan was greeted in the seventh by Wes Greber's single. After getting two quick outs, Secrest singled to put runners at first and second for Carson Staugler, but Sullivan enticed a pop-out to Dieringer at short to end the inning.
"Brayden has been our bulldog all year," said Graves. "We've got 13 wins and he has six or seven of them. We know when he's going to pitch, he's going to give us everything that he's got."
Celina first baseman Caleb Stephenson waits on a throw in the Division II sectional final against St. Marys at K.C. Geiger Park on Friday.
Celina ends the spring at 12-16, but Dorner feels that the growing pains of a this season will build for next season.
"Without any seniors (this season), we have an excellent core coming back," said Dorner. "The key will be how hard we work. We have to become better hitters."
Now St. Marys faces neighbor Wapakoneta again. The Roughriders won the regular season meet 7-4 on April 14 at K.C. Geiger, and Graves knows the Redskins will be looking for payback.
"We know how good Wapak is," said Graves. "We also know after beating them in the regular season, they're going to be fired up. We're going to have to be able to match the intensity on Thursday because we know they're not going to back down."
