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Joel Kogge pitched 6 ⅓ innings of five-hit baseball to help St. Marys beat Lexington 4-3 to advance to the Division II district final on Saturday.
BLUFFTON - After being on the "struggle bus" early in the season, the Rider Express is looking for its next destination: a district title.
Aidan Meinerding scored the go-ahead run when a throw to third went out of play, and Kasey Gross closed the door for Joel Kogge as St. Marys defeated Lexington 4-3 in the Division II district baseball semifinal on Thursday afternoon at Memorial Field at Bluffton University.
The Roughriders (11-14) return to Bluffton on Saturday at 2 p.m. for the district final and a berth to the Bowling Green regional. They will face Clear Fork (24-4), an 8-1 winner over Upper Sandusky in the first semifinal.
"We were on the struggle bus for a while during the regular season," said Roughriders coach Adam Graves, a reference to their 0-7 start. "We're coming around. Believing in each other and trying to put all three phases - pitching, hitting and fielding - together. We've done that so far in the tournament. That's what we need to do when we play a very, very good Clear Fork team on Saturday."
Kogge worked through jams in the first and fourth innings unscathed, leaving two runners on in the first thanks to Markale Martin's pop-up to Cayden Ballweg for the final out. Then after Kogge retired the side in the second and third, the Minutemen loaded the bases with one out in the fourth. Kogge enticed Colton Murfield to pop to second before getting Aedan Nicol to bounce back to the mound for the final out.
That allowed St. Marys to take the first advantage in the bottom of the third. Jace Turner led off with a double. Alexander Hoenie's bunt was perfect and went for a single. Hoenie then stole second, with the throw going to the outfield to allow Turner to score the opening run, and Dyllan Fink flew out to center to bring home Hoenie.
St. Marys' Alexander Hoenie (2) slides into second base as Lexington's Gage Powell is unable to handle the throw during Thursday's Division II district semifinal at Bluffton University. The throwing error allowed Jace Turner to score.
Lexington finally got to Kogge in the fifth as Landon Hamilton led off with a walk. After a sacrifice bunt and a fly out to center, Cole Eichorn grounded to second, but the ball was mishandled to put two on for Braden Mumaw, who singled home Hamilton. Martin stepped up and lofted a deep fly, and Jacob Kaiser nearly got a glove on the ball but went past, bringing home the tying and go-ahead run to make it 3-2.
"We had a chance to get out of that inning," said Graves. "You're thinking, 'Aw, man. All the breaks we got early in the tournament, the baseball gods are going to get us.' "
Murfield retired St. Marys in order in the bottom of the fifth. In the sixth, Preston Rupert legged out an infield single and went to second on the errant throw over the fence. After Dominik Osborne came on to run for Rupert, Gross bunted the runner up to bring on Rammel, who laced a single on the right side of the infield to score Osborne to tie the game.
Murfield then picked off Rammel for the second out with Meinerding at the plate. With a 2-1 count, Meinerding blasted a shot past the right fielder, dashed around the bases and slid safely as the throw from right came in, overshooting the third baseman and going out of play. The home plate umpire signaled Meinerding home to make it 4-3.
St. Marys' Aidan Meinerding (17) is greeted by Alexander Hoenie after scoring the game-winning run.
"All of the sudden, we get a break at the end," said Graves. "We get the run in and execute just like we're supposed to to tie it up. Aidan then hits the big one and hustles all the way around. They tried to make a play on it and end up throwing it out."
In the top of the seventh, Kogge got Michael Togliatti to ground back to the mound for the first out before Zian Rhodes singled and Eichorn walked. Graves wasted no time in bringing on Gross, who got the win over Celina in the sectional final, on to close the door.
Gross' first pitch to Mumaw was grounded to third as Ballweg threw to first for the second out. Gross then worked the count to Martin to 1-2 before Martin lined a shot right to Rupert's glove at first to end the game.
"It was like, 'Holy cow!' " said Graves. "My heart rate was up and down and emotions were going back and forth.
"I'm proud of the team," he went on. "In a big emotional game like this, it's real easy to think you could have the possibility of (ending the season). Joel pitched a fantastic game. Kasey gets the last two outs. Those are our two big-inning pitchers we count on out there."
The bottom part of the St. Marys order - Rammel, Meinerding, Turner and Hoenie - each had a hit and scored three of the four Roughrider runs.
"I think it was bottom of the order that did most of the damage," said Graves. "Even when we got the first two (outs), we executed like we're supposed to."
