HAMLER (Crawford County Now) — Both teams were on a roll to get to this point of the tournament.
Something had to give.
Evergreen pitcher Nolan Hudik scattered five hits with six strikeouts and the Vikings got timely hitting to blank Colonel Crawford, 6-0, in their Division VI regional semifinal at Patrick Henry High School.
Evergreen will meet Elmwood, which beat Marion Local 8-0 in the first game, Friday at 5 p.m. back at Patrick Henry.
Greatly assisting Hudik and Evergreen was a stellar defense behind the right-hander.
“That’s kind of been our marching orders all year,” Vikings coach Chris Owens said. “We trust our defense. We put a lot of time in at it in the wintertime, knowing that if we throw strikes, it’s very hard to get a hit in this game. Three out of 10 times you’re going to be successful, and we like those odds with our defense.”
The Vikings made the routine plays — committing no errors — as well as the spectacular. Leading that parade was Evergreen (15-10) centerfielder Colton Robertson, who made several diving catches to prevent hits and potential runs.
“That was kind of the difference,” Colonel Crawford coach Jordan Oliver said of the Vikings defense. “It seemed like everything we hit hard, they were still able to get a glove on it. Their centerfielder showed a lot of range and took away some hits from us. Their shortstop (Bryce Bolger) played outstanding.”
Eagles’ starter Van Wintersteller matched Hudik nearly pitch for pitch for the first three innings. The first of five Colonel Crawford (13-14) errors helped produce an unearned Evergreen run in the third.
Wintersteller, like Hudik, went the distance, striking out two and walking three. The Vikings touched Wintersteller for two runs in the fourth on a double by Troy Manz and singles by John Herdman and Austin Burghardt.
One of the singles was the result of a bad hop off the cut of the infield grass that went over the shoulder of shortstop Parker Weithman — one of two such in the game.
“We were laughing. It felt that we got every bad hop at shortstop and every ball we hit to their shortstop, it bounced true,” Oliver said. “Credit them. They played very well.”
With the 3-0 lead, Hudik settled in and allowed just three hits over the last four innings. The Eagles only got one runner as far as third base for the entire game.
“Historically, he starts out a little slow in that first inning,” Owens said of Hudik. “But if we get him a little bit of run support, things are going to look good for us.”
Evergreen tacked on three insurance runs in the seventh on three singles, a walk and a hit batter.
“Their timely hits and the five errors we committed gave them more base runners than the scorebook shows,” Oliver said. “But Van competed to the very end and threw a complete game. It seems like every time he goes out, he’s willing to throw 115-120 pitches, and he did it again.”
Grady Riggle had two hits for the Eagles, while Weithman, Joe Zizzo, and Evan Metzger had the others, all singles.
“That’s a young team, obviously, with one senior (Kaden Bruner)” Owens said of the Eagles. “They’re peaking at about the right time. The future is bright for them. Hopefully, we can see them down the road, I guess.”
Manz and Herdman led the Vikings’ offense with two hits each. Robertson, Layne Vance, Blake Boucher, and Burghardt each hit safely. Manz’ double was the only extra base hit of the game.
“Deagan Moore did an awesome job behind the plate,” Oliver said. “It was hot and dusty back there and it hasn’t been that way most of this year. So Deagan and Van did a great job keeping us in the game. You’re not going to win any game scoring zero runs, and we just weren’t able to produce any today.”
Despite his getting limited playing time, Bruner was a key part of the team, according to the coach.
“I told the kids going into next year, we all need to be more unselfish like Kaden Bruner was,” Oliver said.
“For us, it’s been next man up,” Owens said of playing Elmwood for a trip to the state Final Four next week. “Elmwood’s another historically good program. We’re going to have to play our best baseball game again (Friday). That’s what playing baseball in June is all about in Ohio. To be one of eight teams, (we) couldn’t do it any better.”
“The challenge for our kids is can we put it together for a full season next year like we did for the last half of the season this year,” Oliver said.
“The potential’s there,” he added. “But sometimes potential can be a bad thing because it’s something you still have to reach.”
Box score
Evergreen 001 200 3 6 8 0
Colonel Crawford 000 000 0 0 5 5
WP: Nolan Hudik (6 SO, 2 W)
LP: Van Wintersteller (2 SO, 3 W)
HR: None.
Triples: None.
Doubles: (E) Troy Manz.
Multiple hits: (E) Troy Manz, John Herman; (CC) Grady Riggle.
Records: Evergreen 15-10; Colonel Crawford 13-14.
Next: Evergreen vs. Elmwood, Division VI regional final at Patrick Henry, Thursday; Colonel Crawford season over.