FAIRBORN − Playing at the home of the Wright State Raiders, which shocked college baseball by upsetting No. 1 Vanderbilt in the NCAA Tournament, Lakota West baseball notched a big-time upset of its own in knocking out top-seeded Moeller, 3-2, on Wednesday, June 4, at Nischwitz Stadium.
Lakota West (24-7) captures its fourth regional title in school history and first since 2017.
Moeller, the state’s top-ranked team in Division I and making its fourth consecutive regional final appearance, finishes the year 25-4.
“Just proud of the kids. All year long they’ve done great,” Lakota West head coach Brad Gschwind said. “They’ve been grinding through the whole year. They’ve bounced back every time we hit a little rough patch.”
Gschwind was a Lakota West senior the last time the Firebirds beat Moeller, a 2-1 victory on April 21, 2007. The same season, Gschwind helped lead Lakota West to its lone state championship.
“They haven’t been this far yet, but they’ve done it. They’ve been a part of the varsity program for three, four years in some cases,” Gschwind said. “The cool thing is we have some basketball players, we have some football players, these multi-sport kids who have made it far in the tournament. We have some basketball players who were in the Final Four just a few months ago.
“That goes a long way when you get into these close games and this type of environment.”
One day after three Lakota West pitchers combined to throw a complete-game, two-hit shutout in the regional semifinal, right-hander Adrian Smith took the mound against the Crusaders and turned in a gem without any of the relief.
The senior authored a complete game, yielding just two hits and two unearned runs while striking out nine, to help the Firebirds capture a regional crown.
“What a journey with these brothers. I’ve grown up with these guys. This was really about camaraderie and brotherhood,” Smith said. “Nothing tops it. This is probably one of the best feelings I’ll ever have and something I’ll be able to tell my kids about one day.”
Before Smith could put together 21 outs to send Lakota West to state, the Firebirds’ offense had to dent the scoreboard against one of the top high school prospects in the upcoming MLB draft in Moeller’s Zion Theophilus.
An LSU commit, Theophilus had allowed just three earned runs over his last four starts and entered the contest with a 1.79 ERA and 74 strikeouts over 43 innings.
After stranding two runners in the first, Lakota West broke through in the second when Isaiah Meade-Moss bunted his way aboard with a single. L.J. Green followed with an RBI double down the left-field line to give the Firebirds a 1-0 lead. Green would score two batters later on a safety squeeze bunt from Parker Isaacs to make it 2-0.
Moeller cut the lead to 2-1 in the fourth, but Lakota West immediately answered in the fifth when Braydon Johnson ripped a leadoff triple to right field. Smith, hitting in the five-hole, made it 3-1 Firebirds by lifting a sacrifice fly to left field.
“His (Theophilus) stuff is unbelievable,” Gschwind said. “I credit our guys for just battling.”
Smith retired the first 11 batters he faced before Moeller’s Conner Cuozzo reached on an error with two outs in the fourth. Carter Christenson followed with an RBI single to make it 2-1. Moeller trimmed the Lakota West lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth with another unearned run on Donovan Glosser’s sacrifice fly.
With the tying run on third and two outs, Smith got Moeller leadoff hitter Luke Pappano to ground out. Smith went on to retire six straight Crusaders to end it.
“Trusting my stuff and trusting my teammates that I was gonna keep them off balance and get the job done,” said Smith, who improved to 3-3 on the year. “I really relied on my breaking ball a lot today and it worked for me.”
Lakota West advances to play either Grove City or Lewis Center Olentangy in the Division I state semifinals at Thurman Munson Memorial Stadium in Canton on Saturday, June 14.
Lakota West 3, Moeller 2
WP- Smith (3-3, 9Ks); LP- Theophilus (5-2, 9Ks)
Leaders: LW- Johnson 3B; Meade-Moss 2-2; Green 2B. M- none.
Records: Lakota West (24-7); Moeller (25-4).
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: ‘Nothing tops it.’ Lakota West baseball beats Moeller for 1st regional title since 2017
Reporting by Shelby Dermer, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
