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St. Henry's Drew Schwieterman tries to slide under the tag of North Central catcher Connor Gendron during Thursday's Division IV regional semifinal at Elida's Ed Sandy Field. Schwieterman was out on the play.
ELIDA - Needing some big innings to get his team into the regional final, Lucas Clune stepped up in a big way.
The St. Henry junior pitched into the sixth inning and the Redskins got enough runs to make his effort worthwhile in beating North Central 5-1 in the Division IV regional semifinals at Ed Sandy Field in Elida.
The Redskins (23-6) now face fellow Midwest Athletic Conference member Delphos St. John's tonight at 5 p.m. in Elida. The Blue Jays scored all of their runs in the top of the seventh inning to beat Columbus Grove 4-0 in the second semifinal. St. Henry won the regular season meeting 14-6 at the Wally Post Athletic Complex on April 27.
Clune, who got the win with five-plus innings of solid ball in the district final against Marion Local, battled through the game, allowing just two hits with four walks and four strikeouts as he took a shutout into the sixth inning.
Lucas Clune pitched five-plus innings of two-hit baseball to help St. Henry defeat North Central 5-1 in the Division IV regional semifinal at Elida.
"We did an intrasquad on Tuesday and he threw 25 pitches," St. Henry skipper Mike Gast said of Clune. "He was as sharp as I've ever seen him all year. His change-up was really good. It's good that he was able to throw more than his fastball for strikes. He gained a lot of confidence and maturity on the mound."
St. Henry looked ready to blow the game open in the first inning as the Redskins loaded the bases on Eagles starter Sam Moore with nobody out, but Moore came back with two flyouts sandwiched around a strikeout to get out of the inning unscathed.
That wasn't the case in the second inning. Nolan Kunkler walked to lead off the inning, and after Moore got two quick outs, Logan Link singled home Kunkler, who had stolen second, for the first run of the game. Bryce Brookhart then laced a single to score Link to make it 2-0.
"It makes you breathe easier," said Gast of the two runs. "I found myself thinking midway through the game that it's a little bit of an advantage being the visiting team (and batting first) to be able to get runs on the board first. By the end, I was like 'Nah, not so sure that's an advantage here.' "
St. Henry's Eli Horstman bunts during Thursday's Division IV regional baseball semifinal against North Central at Ed Sandy Field in Elida.
Moore got through jams in the third and fourth innings before the Redskins scored insurance runs in the fifth. After Drew Schwieterman singled, Eli Horstman bunted pinch-runner Emmitt LaBrun to second and Clune grounded to first to move LaBrun to third. Kunkler walked to bring up Caden Bergman, who blistered a double down the third-base line to score both runs and make it 4-0. Devin Delzeith followed with a double of his own to bring in Bergman to make it 5-0.
North Central (13-7) tried to break through in the bottom of the fifth after Clune issued a one-out walk to Johnny Hicks. Ethan Beard then grounded to Drew Schwieterman, whose throw for the force at second was wild to leave all hands safe. Jake Turner then walked to load the bases.
After a meeting on the mound, Clune bowed his back and struck out pinch-hitter Logan Clark before getting Quin Burt to pop to short to leave the bases full of Eagles.
In the sixth, Kenneth Smeltzer led off with a single and Connor Gendron walked, and Gast came out to bring on Ethan Nietfeld. Nietfeld walked Cohen Meyers to load the bases for Ben Pettit, who singled to right to bring home Smeltzer. Nietfeld promptly struck out the next two batters before getting Turner to pop out to end the inning with Eagles on all the bases.
All that remained was getting the final three outs in the seventh. but Moore led off with a single and Burt walked, and Gast wasted no time calling on Delzeith, who will start in tonight's final.
Needing to get the inning in under 30 pitches to be able to go tonight, Delzeith needed just 10, striking out Smeltzer, giving up a single to Gendron to load the bases, then getting Meyers to pop to second and Pettit to ground to Link, who threw to first for the final out.
St. Henry's Logan Link sets up to make a catch on a line drive during Thursday's game with North Central at Elida.
"We didn't want to wait too long for the tying run to get on base," said Gast of his bringing in his ace. "Tying run was on deck and that was the time for us to give Devin a little bit of breathing room."
Brookhart, Schwieterman and Delzeith each had two hits for St. Henry.
Now St. Henry gears up for its first regional final since 2003, when the Redskins beat Millbury Lake 4-2 at Colonel Crawford to reach the state final four and went on to win their third state title.
"We're looking forward to it," said Gast. "We're happy Lucas gave us this opportunity to battle (St. John's) with Devin."
