SHELBY (Crawford County Now) — Momentum is powerful. It can start slow and snowball. It can also switch sides.

Both happened in the Division VI district final at Shelby High School Friday.

Colonel Crawford grabbed a 2-0 first-inning lead. But St. Henry chipped away, gained control, and pulled away to a 7-4 victory.

St. Henry moves on to the Division VI regional semifinal at Patrick Henry on Wednesday.

The Eagles jumped on Redskins’ starter Owen Zimmerman for four hits and two runs in the bottom of the first.

Parker Weithman, Van Wintersteller, and Evan Metzger all singled and Nate McCartney doubled. Wintersteller and McCartney drove in the runs.

From there, Zimmerman got stingy and the Colonel Crawford offense got stuck in neutral.

“He settled in super well,” Colonel Crawford coach Jordan Oliver said of Zimmerman. “You can tell the experience they have and the work they’ve put into their program. Two runs isn’t going to faze them. We needed to stay on it and two didn’t prove to be enough runs.”

The senior righthander faced just one over the minimum in innings 2 through 5. The only Eagles baserunner in that span was Jentsen Landon, who reached on a walk.

“He handled it really well. He was very mature about it,” St. Henry coach Mike Gast said of his ace’s bumpy start. “He played a big part in the state championship in the fall in football. The ability to handle that adversity right away, we can lean on that with him.

“He was hanging his curve ball in the first inning. He made a couple of adjustments and was really good from then on.”

Zimmerman gave his offense the opportunity to chip away at the lead. The Redskins got one back in the third on a single by Jack Huelsman and two Colonel Crawford (14-11) errors. The Eagles ended the game with seven miscues.

“I thought we had a couple of mistakes that aren’t real typical of us,” Oliver said. “Against good teams like this, you can’t give them extra outs, and they took advantage of it.”

In the fourth, Austin Zimmerman singled and Austin Kunk doubled him home to tie the game for St. Henry (24-3). The Redskins took the lead for good with a run in the fifth on a hit batter and Jake Schieterman’s double.

Wintersteller had kept Colonel Crawford in the game on the mound, holding a potent St. Henry offense to three runs on seven hits through five.

“He had a fantastic game. He had great stuff,” Gast said. “We like to put pressure with our run game. He had a great move — picked us off once or twice. I don’t think we had a stolen base today because he was really good at holding us.”

“I couldn’t be more proud of Van,” Oliver said. “He wanted the ball until the very end. Being a senior and our three-year ace, I didn’t want to take that ball out of his hands.”

St. Henry increased the lead to 4-2 in the sixth when Kunk was safe on an error and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Logan Schmitz.

Colonel Crawford answered with a run in the bottom of the frame when Grady Riggle singled to lead off and later scored on a fielder’s choice ground out by McCartney.

But Wintersteller ran out of gas in the seventh. A walk, two hits, and two errors chase Wintersteller and resulted in three Redskins’ runs. The Eagles scored one final run in the bottom of the seventh on a Carson Rader single and a Weithman ground out. But it was not enough.

“Things have gone pretty well for us this year and I think we can lean on some of the experiences,” Gast said. “We’ve had games where we had to come back. We’ve gone against plenty of 80+ arms this year — things we’ve gone through that we can lean on in postseason play.”

Zimmerman went the first six innings, scattering seven hits while striking out seven and walking just one. Tate Boeckman, Schwieterman, Austin Zimmerman, Kunk, and Huelsman all had two hits for the Redskins.

Oliver says goodbye to his eight seniors — McCartney, Joe Zizzo, Wintersteller, Peyton Baker, Brayden Hickman, Walker Cramer, Tyce Lisle, Brayden Holt, and Tyson Smith.

“This is a special group of seniors,” Oliver said. “This is my fourth year at Colonel Crawford, so this is the guys I’ve gotten to come through with, so, personally, they’re important to me.”

After two straight appearances in the district final, Oliver would like to reload.

“We’ve got some strong underclassmen,” Oliver said. “Playing in a district tournament with an atmosphere of excitement like no regular season game, I hope that makes them hungry to get back here next year.”

Gast believes that successes elsewhere in the school system has helped his team’s success.

“They handled it extremely well,” Gast said. “I’m so proud of their mental toughness today.

“The school loves it; the community loves it. Winning breeds winning.”

Box score

St. Henry                   001 111 3      7      12        2

Colonel Crawford    200 001 1      4        8        7

WP: Owen Zimmerman (7 SO, 1 W)

LP: Van Wintersteller (4 SO, 2 W)

HR: None.

Triples: None.

Doubles: (SH) Jake Schwieterman, Austin Zimmerman, Austin Kunk; (CC) Nate McCartney.

Multiple hits: (SH) Tate Boeckman, Jake Schwieterman, Austin Zimmerman, Austin Kunk, Jack Huelsman; (CC) Van Wintersteller.

Records: St. Henry 24-3; Colonel Crawford 14-11.

Next: St. Henry at Patrick Henry, Division IV regional semifinal on Wednesday, 5 p.m.; Colonel Crawford season over.