GALION — Getting to a regional baseball tournament isn’t easy. Winning a game at that level is even more difficult.

Seneca East comes into the Division IV regional semifinal at 16-12 and head coach Rick Bowerman knows the toughest challenge lies ahead.

“It took us a while to get our footing and find our identity to do what we need to do to win. Being a district champion is tough. Once you get to the districts, people think it’s easy to win a game. It’s not.”

The Tigers have won 4 of their last 5 games.

“It doesn’t matter who you play. It’s tough to win a (tournament) game. I’m really proud of the way these kids have finished,” he said Friday night as the team celebrated, accepted their district championship trophy, and posed for photos in the Heise Park infield.

‘Good fundamentals’ key

Now the stage gets bigger with an appearance at Beavers Field in Lancaster on Thursday at 5 p.m. The opponent is Whiteoak, a school from Highland County.

“We will need to play a good game. The competition is going to be tough and those will be close ball games. We have just got to keep working on the fundamentals. The routine plays. Good fundamentals: that’s what we need to do,” Bowerman said.

The Tigers advanced with a 9-3 district championship win over Northern 10 Athletic Conference rival Colonel Crawford, beating the Eagles for the third time this season.

Seneca East finished 7-7 in the tough N10, and Bowerman credited that league schedule as well as playing some larger schools late in the season.

“That gave us a lot of confidence when we needed it. Late in the season we were a game under .500, and I thought we may not even have a winning record,” he said.

Whiteoak advances

For Whiteoak, this marks its first trip to the regional tourney. Their coach shares the same sentiment with Bowerman regarding getting to this level.

“It means to me that as a program we’ve shown progression, because it’s something that we’ve never done, and it’s not easy,” head coach Chris Veidt told The Highland County Press.

“I mean, it’s not easy winning a district championship. There’s great teams in this district, and not only are there great teams in this district, you have to have a great regular season to set yourself up for success as well.”

The Wildcats are 26-2 and topped Ironton St. Joseph 10-0 in 5 innings to win their southeast district title — and got a great pitching effort in doing so.

Luken Roades was outstanding on the mound, as he was perfect through 4 and 2/3 innings, not giving up a hit — a bloop single — until the top of the fifth.

Roades allowed no runs on 1 hit, with no walks and 9 strikeouts.

“Luken and Landon (Barnett) — our entire pitching staff really, but especially those two — have led us this year, and they’ve just been outstanding and dominating,” Veidt said. “Luken was a Texas Leaguer away from a no-hitter.”

Roades, Carson Emery, Eli Roberts and David Donohoo led Whiteoak at the plate, all getting two hits.

Like Seneca East did with its 5-run seventh inning Friday night, Whiteoak also had a big inning in its district final scoring 6 runs in the third to stake a 7-0 lead.

Barnett’s home run to center field gave the Wildcats a win in the district semifinal contest.

Veidt said his team has approached the season with calmness and has managed success the right way.

“I’m just so proud of the kids and the way not only they approached that inning, but the way they’ve approached this stage, including Saturday,” he said. “They’ve been nothing but a class act and grace under pressure.”

Tigers history, stats

A trip to regionals hasn’t happened often for the Tigers, despite maintaining a strong program.

  • In 2019, they lost to Hillsdale 7-1 in the Division IV regional semifinal at Strongsville. Seneca East lost the district semifinals in Galion in 2018, falling to Plymouth 5-0.
  • A year prior, Seneca East won the N10 and was 15-1 and 20-5 overall but got beat by Margaretta 5-0 in the D-III sectional final.
  • In 2015, under head coach Frank Lamoreaux, the Tigers won 16 league games and compiled a 22-4 record before losing to New Riegel 6-0 in the D-IV district semifinal.
  • In 2014, a 24-2 Tigers team lost to Cuyahoga Heights, 1-0, in the D-IV regional final at Lorain.

With 5 seniors and a nice smattering of underclassmen, the Tigers are poised to take the next step.

“We lost some games I thought we should have won. We have some young kids playing and we had 2 or 3 freshmen come in today as base runners today, that we expect them to do the job,” Bowerman said.

The seniors are Cooper Skeel, Graham Gibbs, Brandon Hines, Cody Heibertshausen and Nate Sauers.

It was Heibertshausen who delivered a 3-run double in the seventh that blew open a 4-3 game against Colonel Crawford.

“Cody’s opposite-field base hit was just huge for us. It was a big hit, alongside some great base running from Blake Foos, who scored all the way from first base,” Bowerman said.

The Tigers added a pair of runs and it resulted in a 9-3 win and a berth in the regional tourney.

Junior Caden Fritz’ .410 batting average leads the way this season. He and Aiden Hines top the club with 2 home runs apiece. He’s also team leader in RBI with 20.

Hines is hitting .333 and has 20 stolen bases. Jake Bowerman has 8 doubles and a .289 batting average.

Skeel, Hines and Fritz all have earned 4 pitching wins. Hines has 30 strikeouts and 13 walks.

First game

South Webster (16-11) and Berlin Hiland (26-1) square off in the 2 p.m. game Thursday, with the winners returning at 6 p.m. Friday for the regional championship and a berth in the state tournament in Akron.

Those games are set for June 8 and 10 at Canal Park.

For full information go to https://www.ohsaa.org/sports/baseball