Cedarville University was already set to host the regional semifinals and finals, meaning the Indians only had to cross the street to continue their unexpected tournament run.
Although No. 1 seed Fayetteville-Perry brought a strong crowd up from Brown County, the confines certainly seemed friendly as Cedarville cruised to a 7-1 win over the Rockets.
“It’s a great field,” said Creeden, the sophomore pitcher who struck out eight and scattered eight hits over six innings to get the victory. “It’s just across the street, so it’s great to play here.
“Nobody expected us to get this far, but it’s been fun, and I mean, we’ve been looked at as the underdog this whole entire time as a seven seed. So tomorrow will be similar to Fort Loramie, and we’re gonna go in and play with house money.”
He pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the first then mostly cruised after Cedarville cashed in some scoring opportunities the Rocket defense helped create.
With one out in the top of the fourth, Jacob Lide doubled into the gap in left-center for Cedarville’s first hit then moved to third on a passed ball as Tristan Berkheiser took a fourth ball for a walk.
With second base open, Berkheiser stole it without a throw, setting the stage for centerfielder Cooper Hardy to knock both home with a single to left to start the scoring.
But the Indians weren’t done.
They added anther run when Hardy, who had moved up on a walk to Micah Burr, came home on a Wyatt Jolliffe grounder that eluded the Fayetteville shortstop to make it 3-0.
Cedarville added another run in the fifth on a seeing-eye-single by Wyatt Percival that drove home Creeden, but the Rockets got a run back in the bottom of the frame when Braedyn Crone singled, moved to second on an errant pickoff throw, took third on a passed ball and came home on a Caleb Fehring single up the middle.
Cedarville answered in the next frame when Xavier Pauling walked with the bases loaded to drive in one run, and Lide lifted a sacrifice fly to right field. That scored two runs when the throw home got away from the catcher, giving the Indians a commanding 7-1 advantage.
“If we’re able to pull runs across in a couple instances and get four or five across, we’ve been in good shape pretty much the whole season,” said Cedarville coach Trevor Creeden, whose team improved to 17-6 and ran its winning streak to nine games. “Playing clean in the field, that’s what we have to do, too. We had one error that was just a bad pick off and played clean other than that. Those are to things, pitching and defense. Then you just get a few timely hits and you’re going to be able to win most games.”
In the bottom of the seventh, the Rockets put their first two runners on, prompting Creeden the manager to take the ball from his son, Creeden the pitcher, and give it to freshman Tavin Baldwin.
In an ironic twist, Baldwin’s first pitch was hit on a line to Creeden, who had just taken his place at shortstop. He caught it for one out then flipped to Percival at second base for another.
One batter later, those two combined for the 21st putout on a grounder up the middle to move Cedarville within one win of its second trip to the state tournament — and first in 80 years.
With the regional final scheduled for Thursday afternoon against either Russia or Sycamore Mohawk, Cedarville is set to throw Pauling, who shut down Fort Loramie for a 2-0 win in the district final.
Pauling is 6-3 on the season with 60 strikeouts in 48⅓ innings and a 3.19 ERA while fellow sophomore Creeden is 6-1 with 56 Ks in 45⅔ innings.
“Our pitchers, even though they’re sophomores, pitch like seniors, which is awesome to see, and they’ve been great,” Trevor Creeden said. “Now we also have a freshman (Baldwin) who came in at the end there. He’s pitched well this season when we called on him. He plays older than he is, too.
“I mean, we have true baseball guys in more than half of our order that are going to battle up there. We’re going to be able to put the bat on the ball and move guys around and are smart on the bases. So it’s fun to coach those guys.”
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