Badin baseball back in state final four

Mercy rule ends Rams’ 17-2 rout of Eagles in time for seniors to make it to graduation ceremony.

Badin's Zach Toerner slides into home during the Rams' 17-2 win over Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy in Friday's Division III regional championship game.

Photos: Badin vs. CHCA

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By Jay Morrison, Staff Writer Updated 3:57 PM Saturday, May 30, 2009

FAIRBORN — Forget the pomp. The Badin High School baseball seniors’ graduation day will be remembered for pop and circumstance.

The Rams collected 12 hits in five innings on the way to a 17-2, mercy-rule drubbing of Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy in a Division III regional championship game Friday, May 29, at Wright State University’s Nischwitz Stadium.

Badin (28-2) advances to its second consecutive state final four, where the Rams will face the winner of the Elida regional in a 1 p.m. semifinal game Thursday in Columbus at Huntington Park.

“To be honest, I thought we could be better this year than we were last year,” said Badin coach Rick Kunkel, whose Rams lost 8-0 in the 2008 D-III state title game.

“We had the core coming back in addition to (Jake) Wurzelbacher and (Bud) Brown, who would’ve started last year if they weren’t hurt, and I knew our pitching was going to be good,” Kunkel continued. “So I really expected us to be here.”

Just as in the 9-4 regional semifinal win against Marion Pleasant a day earlier, Badin jumped on top of the Eagles (24-5) early, scoring four runs in the second inning.

But the biggest blow came in the fifth when, leading just 4-2, the Rams sent 18 batters to the plate and scored 13 runs to bury CHCA.

“This was a much less painful loss than last year,” Eagles coach Larry Redwine said, referring to a 2-1 loss on a wild pitch against Heath in the regional semifinals. “I’ve voted (Badin) No. 1 in the state poll since Day 1. In fact, I kept telling all the other coaches I talked to that they were clearly the best team.”

By winning in just five innings, the seniors had time to make it to Badin’s 8 p.m. graduation ceremony.

Scott Staarmaan (2-for-3, RBI, two runs), Brett McKinney (2-for-3, two runs), Tony Cassano (2-for-3, three RBIs, three runs scored) and Wurzelbacher (2-for-2, two RBIs, two runs, stolen base) had multi-hit games for Badin. And No. 9 hitter Bud Brown drove in three runs with a double — the Rams’ only extra-base hit in the game — and a perfectly executed suicide squeeze.

“I knew we were capable of something like this,” Brown said. “And the best is still yet to come.”

Josh McFarland was the beneficiary of the offensive explosion, even though he didn’t need it. McFarland (5-1) allowed just three hits and one earned run through four innings before turning things over to Andrew Fritsch to finish off the repeat trip to Columbus.

“We knew how hard it was going to be to get back, but now that we’re there everyone on this team feels like we’ve got unfinished business to take care of up there,” said senior Zach Toerner, who went 1-for-3 with two RBIs and a run in addition to saving his fellow infielders several times with nice scoops at first base.

“We don’t plan on coming home without a ring.”

ontact this reporter at (513) 820-2193 or jmorrison@coxohio.com.

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