GALION — Nine times, Dan Gorbett led the Colonel Crawford baseball team into the district tournament.
But there were no district titles to show for it.
That streak finally ended Thursday night.
The Eagles scored eight runs over the first three innings and junior Gavin Feichtner fired a two-hit complete game as Crawford dropped Mohawk, 8-1, in the final of the Division III district tournament at Galion’s Heise Park.
With the win, the Eagles (22-7) will face Antwerp in the regional semifinal on Thursday at 2 p.m. at Hamler Patrick Henry High School. Mohawk dropped to 19-7 on the season.
Gorbett said that finally getting the Eagles to the regional tournament was quite a relief.
“This is a king-sized monkey off of my back,” Gorbett said. “So, this is very, very special for me, coming back to Crawford and finally winning it.”
This also ends another streak for the CC baseball program as a whole. The last time the Eagles won a district title was 1965.
“It feels great,” Feichtner said of breaking the 54-year drought. “Winning the first district since (1965), it’s been a long, long time. It’s great to come out with a district W.”
Feichtner was brilliant, working seven strong innings. He permitted a double to Trey Combs to left center in the sixth and a single by Blake Harper in the fourth. He struck out 14 and walked three.
“I needed to get my mind set,” Feichtner said of his performance. “We made a mind toward this game. I needed to go out there and pitch fully.”
“The last three or four games, (Feichtner’s) been throwing strikes,” Gorbett said. “In the beginning, he was walking like four a game. He’s around the strike zone all the time now. I wasn’t surprised with his performance. That’s what he’s been doing.”
Gorbett said that Feichtner’s performance early in the game seemed to relax his team.
“He’s been good all year, but he has really been good recently,” Gorbett added. “After that first inning, he was throwing hard and getting his curveball over, I think that really relaxed the whole team.”
The Eagles scored in the first on a Cade Hamilton single and an RBI single from Feichtner, before adding two more in the second. Brock Ritzhaupt and Caleb Lohr walked, and both scored on a Hamilton single and an RBI sacrifice fly from Trevin Fairchild.
Crawford put the game away in third, scoring five times. Three Mohawk errors contributed to the inning. Drayton Burkhart, Fairchild, Feichtner and Daylen Balliet each singled.
Mohawk scored its lone run in the fourth on Harper’s RBI single.
“I thought we played great defense, got great pitching and had great bats,” Gorbett said. “To dance that’s what you have to do.
“Early in the year we were striking out too much,” Gorbett added. “Right now, we’re doing a better job of hitting the ball hard. That’s kind of the same thing we did against Plymouth. We’re able to put the ball in play against good pitchers.”
The season ends for Mohawk and with it the careers of seniors Bryce Kirian, Cole Widmer and Tanner Osborn.
Box score
Colonel Crawford 125 000 0 8 10 1
Mohawk 000 100 0 1 2 3
WP: Gavin Feichtner (14 SO, 3 W)
LP: Landon Snyder (1 SO, 3 W)
HR: None.
Triples: None.
Doubles: (M) Trey Combs.
Multiple hits: (CC) Cade Hamilton, Trevin Fairchild, Gavin Feichtner, Carson Feichtner.
Records: Colonel Crawford 22-7; Mohawk 19-7.
Next: Colonel Crawford vs. Antwerp, Division IV regional semifinal Thursday, at Patrick Henry High School; Mohawk season over.