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Seven-run sixth inning sinks Poland at state
Badin batters struggled for first five frames
By Charles Grove
COLUMBUS
In postseason baseball, all it takes is one bad inning and a season can go up in smoke. That’s exactly what happened to the Poland High School team on Thursday in a Division II state semifinal against Hamilton Badin.
The Rams, who had been limited to one run on two hits through five innings, ripped the Bulldogs pitching staff apart for seven runs in the sixth inning and sailed to an 8-3 win at Huntington Park.
Poland starting pitcher Dan Klase walked Cole Heflin on four pitches to lead off the sixth inning and walked David Begley in the next at-bat on five tosses.
“I just couldn’t throw strikes. I don’t know what I was doing,” Klase said. “The inning before I did good. I went 1-2-3 and then came back out in the sixth and just couldn’t hit the zone.”
Poland coach Rich Murray made the decision to bring in Matt Baker in relief, but that’s when the tide turned.
Baker only faced four batters, failing to record an out. He gave up three hits and a botched fielder’s choice when he tried to throw a runner out at home on a bunt attempt.
In total, Baker was tagged for four earned runs and allowed both of Klase’s inherited runners to score as well.
By the time the inning ended, 12 Rams batted and the Poland students and fans who had been very vocal up until that point were in stunned silence.
“We made a change, the wheels came off and we couldn’t stop it,” Murray said.
Klase said, “Once that started happening I knew we were in trouble. We never gave up though because we’ve had games when we’ve came back from deficits like that.”
Things looked to be going Poland’s way through the middle innings. After going down a run in the top of the first, the Bulldogs came back with two in the bottom of the second inning.
After Tony Chairo and Klase singled, Jared Burkert was hit by a pitch the next at-bat to load the bases. Baker drew a walk to bring home Chairo. Don Drummond then hit a sacrifice fly to give Poland a one-run lead.
The Bulldogs added one more in the fourth inning when Klase singled to center and eventually came around on an RBI single from Drummond.
On the other side, Logan Heintzman was stubbornly effective to a Bulldogs offense that stranded eight runners.
“He grinded it out,” Badin coach Brion Treadway said. “I thought he gained a lot of confidence as the game went on. I could tell all he needed was a lead and he was going to hold it.”
Ahead, Treadway thought about pulling Heintzman once his pitch count began climbing, but got a load of confidence from his ace in the dugout.
“I was close to pulling him because I didn’t want him to reach 120 pitches, but he said, ‘This is my game and I ain’t coming out,’” Treadway said. “I love to hear that and I love the look in the eye that backs it up.”
Poland failed to get much production out of the top of its order. Their top-third of the order went a combined 1-10 with a walk, no runs and no runs batted in.
With the loss, Poland’s season ends at 28-4. The Bulldogs missed out on a rematch in the state title game against Defiance which won the other Division II semifinal against Steubenville.
“It’s been a great year,” Murray said. “We had a lot of close games and pulled them all out, but it just didn’t work out today.”