CANTON ― Easily, the most pivotal point of Saturday’s OHSAA Div. VI state semifinal baseball game between Hiland and Fairview came in the fifth inning at Thurman Munson Memorial Stadium.
With the chance to keep their season alive, and their bid for a three-peat as state champions, the Hawks delivered when it mattered most. Or, in this case, Caden Coblentz and Danny Hostetler did the honors on the way to a 4-2 victory.
The Fairview student section was getting loud, the chants and taunts about it being time to “feed the horses” or “the strike zone isn’t hitting home plate.”
Hiland led by a run as Fairview’s Logan Olinger singled to lead off the inning. After a pair of outs, however, things began to fall apart for Coblentz. He walked a pair to load the bases, and those chants and taunts grew louder. Yet, in that moment, Coblentz and Hostetler shined their brightest.
“He’s been great in tough situations all year,” said Hostetler. “He has confidence in me, and I have confidence in him to make his pitches and execute. I just have to be there to block anything in the dirt and that really helps out the pitcher.”
As for the situation at hand:
“That was really tough,” he added. “Especially after a couple walks to get back on the mound and keep doing what you were doing. I looked out there and could see him struggling, I kind of motioned him, take a deep breath, slow it down and get back into his rhythm.
“He’s heard it plenty of times from me what I have to say in that situation, I don’t even need to go out there and talk to him, he knows what I am going to say.”
Coblentz smiled as he added the experience that the two had together dating back to their seventh-grade days and the confidence he has in Hostetler. That helps as, without words, they both know what Coblentz wants to throw in each moment.
In this instance, a deep breath was required. So was trust.
“I just told myself, ‘Throw strikes’,” said Coblentz. “They were trying to bunt to mess with my head. I just had aim for Danny’s glove and trust it; I was overthinking it for a while.”
His catcher, Hostetler, never wavered in his confidence.
“There was not a doubt in my mind he was going to execute all his pitches,” he said. “I knew that we were going to get out of it, no problem.”
Their coach couldn’t have agreed more as he let Coblentz work his way out of it instead of going to the bullpen.
“He’s our ace, we have trust him and what he can do,” Hawks coach Chris Dages said. “He grinded through this game. It wasn’t his best game, but his not so strong game is still a pretty good game.
“Today, it was just the experience of a senior, he pitched this game for us last year which was another close one. You have to trust that he going to out there and get the job, he does a phenomenal job for us.”
After stepping back on the hill, Coblentz got ahead early on Drayden Grinnell-Dennis 0-2 before inducing an inning-ending pop up to shortstop Keith Hershberger.
“It got a little spicy, but I figured it out and got out of it,” Coblentz said. “I knew my guys could do it on the base paths.”
It was a huge moment, but not too big, as the Hawks’ season is still alive for Sunday’s state final.
“Danny does a phenomenal job working with the pitching staff and managing them,” he added. “He knows when they are off, when the pitch is there and he does an awesome job managing the game.”
This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Caden Coblentz, Danny Hostetler key to Hiland baseball’s return to OHSAA state final
Reporting by Joshua McWilliams, Wooster Daily Record / The Daily Record
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
