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St. Henry's Landon Schwartz slides home off a wild pitch as Celina pitcher Simon Schwartz catches the ball during the ACME District 4 championship game on Tuesday at Veterans Field in Coldwater.
COLDWATER - It is hard to repeat in any sport, and it takes a lot to go right to even get the chance.
But St. Henry earned that chance Tuesday night, as the Redskins used a seven-run second inning to take down Celina 8-0 and win the ACME district 4 title. It gives the team a chance to defend last year's state crown in Kalida on July 18 at Holy Name Ballpark.
"It absolutely feels great, it feels great the boys played fantastic to me," said St. Henry coach Tyler Bruns, whose team will play the winner of the District 6 tournament, which includes Bellefontaine, Indian Lake, Covington, Benjamin Logan, Fairbanks and Triad. That tournament is scheduled to conclude either July 10 or 11 in Bellefontaine.
Celina's Collier Holstad reaches first base safely as St. Henry's Drew Buschur touches the bag during Tuesday's ACME District 4 title game.
Through an inning, Simon Schwartz kept the red-hot St. Henry bats off the scoreboard, but some grit kept the offense rolling.
A one-out walk to Landon Schwartz started the fun, and the righty hitter worked his way to third with two outs on the board. Owen Werling took the first pitch he saw low and outside, and it was worth it as Schwartz sprinted home with the ball to the backstop.
After Werling walked, Harrison Schwieterman made it a 2-0 game on his single that he poked through the gap between shortstop and third. Tate Boeckman rattled off his second hit of the game on an opposite field knock to left field to keep the pressure on.
After a walk to Cooper LaGuire loaded the bases, Drew Langenkamp came up in a big spot. The MAC Position Player of the Year took all five pitches he saw and earned a walk to score Schwieterman to make it 3-0.
The fun continued as the first pitch to Austin Zimmerman got away and scored Boeckman easily. A few pitches later another Redskin crossed the plate on another errant pitch to make it a five-run lead.
Chance Miller climbed the hill soon after for Celina still with two away in the second, and Austin Kunk helped his own cause soon after with an RBI single that was lined into left and pushed the lead to 6-0. Schwartz came up again and took the second pitch he saw to the grass in left to drive in another.
Miller battled to get out of the inning, but the damage was done as St. Henry took the 7-0 lead into the third.
Celina flirted with a two-out rally of their own in the home half of the inning, but Kunk forced a fly ball to right to end a bases-loaded threat. Miller and Kunk battled through the middle innings, as the Bulldogs' right-hander arm kept the offense in check through the third, fourth and fifth frames. For Kunk, while Celina used free passes in the fourth and fifth to try and spark something, he was able to lock down and prevent anything from touching the plate.
Austin Kunk pitched a complete-game three-hitter to help St. Henry beat Celina 8-0 to repeat as ACME Disitrict 4 champion.
"Austin threw the ball fantastic, but you can't forget the defense behind him," said Bruns. "Celina hit the ball hard and we made some great plays, the defense was there. That's what we told (Kunk) all game, just throw strikes and let the defense make the plays."
It was the sixth inning when St. Henry struck again. After the first two batters were sat down quietly, a triple off the bat of Austin Zimmerman got his team's dugout loud again as Kunk stepped into the box.
One pitch later it was an 8-0 lead as Kunk rocketed a ball to the left-center gap to score Zimmerman standing, and Kunk went back to work on the mound to close out the final two innings.
It was a six up, six down final two innings for Celina with the lone highlight a diving grab from Schwieterman in left that undoubtedly saved Kunk a few pitches. A strikeout ended the game, and completed the great day for Kunk on the mound.
He finished with five strikeouts over the seven innings, and allowed just five walks and three hits. The righty also had a team-high two RBI at the plate. Boeckman led the offense with a three-hit day from the leadoff spot.
While Simon Schwartz took the loss, Miller had a good day in the relief spot for the Bulldogs. He finished 4 1/3 innings of work with just one run given up off five hits, and had a strikeout.
