GALION — South Central baseball coach Nick Kirk is a gambling man.
Well, more like a calculated risk kind of guy.
Instead of giving the ball to staff ace Weston June, Kirk gave the starting pitching nod to Troy Ayers in the Trojans’ Division VII district semifinal game against Lucas on Thursday, May 28. The idea was to save June for a potential district championship game, but Kirk also saw the success Ayers had against the Cubs earlier in the season and in district semifinal games in the past, so it wasn’t exactly a gamble kind of move.
Nonetheless, it worked out perfectly as the Trojans knocked off the Cubs 11-0 in a five-inning run-rule victory at Galion’s Heise Park to advance to their third straight district championship game.
“Last year, we were in the same situation,” Kirk said. “We played Buckeye Central and then had Mohawk in the district championship, and we did the same thing. I have full confidence in anyone we put out on the mound, and Troy had that experience of pitching in a big semifinal game. He went out with the same mentality today and gave us a win.”
Ayers was untouchable, allowing just one hit with seven strikeouts and one walk in his five dominant innings. He faced just 17 batters and threw 67 pitches.
“I just go out there with confidence that if I do my part, it will help our team win,” Ayers said. “If hits don’t come, my job is to make sure the other team doesn’t hit. Thankfully, my guys hit for me today.”
That’ i’s an understatement. The Trojans used a nine-run second inning to break things open and two more in the third to reach the run-rule deficit. Those two innings allowed Ayers to relax on the mound and reach back on what made him so successful against Lucas in their April 10 game, a 6-3 Lucas win, where he only allowed one earned run in 5 1/3 innings of work.
“It went way up,” Ayers said. “When we put up that nine-spot, I was able to pitch freely and do my own thing. Pitching against Lucas earlier in the year and the last couple of years, I knew exactly how to attack them, and it worked.”
June had two hits and three RBIs while Alex Hamons had a hit and two RBIs, Cole Frankart had two RBIs, Michael Sanders had a hit and an RBI, Bryan Chaffee had an RBI and Kaden Blair and Gavin Olney had one hit apiece.
“Confidence is an amazing thing,” Kirk said. “We have 10 seniors, and each one of them are leaders and have decided to play up to their standard. We are battle-tested and are going to give their all, all the way through. We set the tone right away and put pressure on them.”
Lucas (9-10) committed two errors on defense and issued four walks and hit three batters for nine free passes on the day. It was a recipe for failure.
“Our whole bread and butter this year has been our pitching and defense, and today, those two things didn’t show up,” Lucas coach Dean George said. “We were very excited to win our game against Buckeye Central that I think we had a little bit of a hangover from that. We put a lot of effort into winning that game.
“We needed it to be a low-scoring game, because South Central has a lot of fire power, more than what we could compete with.”
Xavier Hall had the lone hit for the Cubs. Lucas still finished as Mid-Buckeye Conference champions in the final year in the league, and George had to be proud of his team’s accomplishments this season.
“It was a year where I believe we exceeded our own expectations,” George said. “We lost eight seniors from last year and weren’t sure what we could put together this year. We have to look back on our season and be proud of the young team. I am excited to see these guys grow. I can’t wait to see what Zell Finley can do behind the plate and what Brady Anschutz can continue to do because he is going to be a problem by his senior year.”
South Central (11-13) moves on to play Tiffin Calvert at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 30, back at Galion for a district championship.
“It’s going to be a ballgame,” Kirk said. “It doesn’t matter who we play or where, we are going to show up and play our brand of baseball. If we play like we did today, I will take us every day of the week.”
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: South Central’s calculated pitching risk pays off in win over Lucas
Reporting by Jake Furr, Mansfield News Journal / Mansfield News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
