High school baseball: Butler beats Ross, will face Badin in regional final showdown

Richardson needed to protect a three-run lead and deal with the top of Hamilton Ross’ batting order to send the Aviators into the Division III regional final. And in 16 pitches he struck them all out, hopping up and down and pumping his fist with each out.

When Ross’ Ben Voegele watched the final strike pound catcher Jackson Schilling’s mitt, the Aviators could celebrate a 5-2 victory at Miami University’s Hayden Park.

Next for the Aviators is the showdown many have expected for a trip to the state tournament next week in Akron. Butler must get past Hamilton Badin, which is looking for its fourth trip to state since 2021. Butler’s only trip came in 2000.

“I think a lot of people expected this one,” said Butler coach Trent Dues, who won his 649th game Tuesday. “They’re very good. I think we got a good team. Whoever plays the best baseball is going to win.”

The two successful programs, accustomed to playing in regional tournaments, meet this year because the OHSAA expanded its baseball postseason tournament from four to seven divisions. Badin has been in Division II and Butler has been one of the smallest enrollments in Division I.

“Badin’s a really good team and we’ve got to face Caleb Driessen who has a really good arm,” Schilling said. “We’ve got to go into the game with the same mindset that we’ve had all year that this team’s not going to beat us.”

Badin held back the junior Driessen, its ace, Tuesday and beat Monroe 12-2 in six innings. Butler, however, needed seven innings and 10 strikeouts from Richardson to get by Ross. Richardson struggled some early and allowed two runs in the third inning. Then he retired 12 of Ross’ final 16 batters to move to 9-0.

“He’s a really good pitcher, one of the best we’ve seen,” Ross coach Brad Voegele said. “He just he got stronger as the game got going, and that’s what good pitchers do.”

Richardson, who will play college baseball at Marshall, benefitted from an early 5-0 lead, gained against Ross senior ace Nolan Ertel and his 0.77 ERA. Schilling singled in a run in the first. In the second, Richardson hit an RBI double, Dues hit a two-run double and later scored on a wild pitch to knock Ertel out of the game.

“Ertel getting hit a little bit was unusual,” Voegele said. “We felt like we needed to go do something different because even outs were barreled. He got the ball up a little bit early in counts, in hitting counts and advantage counts for the hitter.”

Carson Sackenheim replaced Ertel and used his sidearm delivery to hold Butler scoreless on two hits over the final 5⅓ innings.

“I think just his release,” said Richardson, whose two hits came against Ertel. “He’s kind of side armed, and we don’t see that a lot. He wasn’t overpowering us. So probably just the arm slot.”

Fortunately for Butler, with a pitcher like Richardson on the mound, five runs on nine hits in the quick start was more than enough.

“That was probably the best hitting team we’ve seen all year,” Voegele said. “Anytime you get the ball up against a decent high school baseball team at this point in the season, you’re going to get hit.”