CENTERVILLE — One of the first things Anna High School baseball coach Mike Muehlfeld did in the Division III district final at Centerville’s Booster Field was to gamble that the lower part of the Badin Rams’ batting order didn’t have a two-out hit hidden away somewhere. Not in the first inning.
Muehlfeld lost the bet. Turns out the Rams had two.
Badin scored five runs in the top of the first inning Saturday, May 23, and went on to defeat the Rockets 12-0 in six innings behind senior Brett McKinney, who tossed a four-hit shutout.
The Rams advance to the regional semifinals at 5 p.m. Thursday at Wright State, where they will face Marion Pleasant.
“It’s always important to jump out on top, especially when you’re the visitor,” said Badin coach Rick Kunkel, whose team bounced back from its 14-4 regular-season loss to Lakota West earlier in the week to raise its record to 26-2.
The top of the first inning didn’t seem like such a big deal, at first. Scott Staarmann had led off with a walk and stole second base, but he still was standing on second following back-to-back strikeouts.
That’s when Muehlfeld had starting pitcher Zach Clark issue an intentional walk to McKinney, a move which surprised some.
Tony Cassano then drew an unintentional walk to load the bases, and the No. 6 hitter, junior third baseman Scott Purcell, poked a two-run single to left field.
After Jake Wurzelbacher drew a walk to reload the bases, Badin’s No. 8 batter, sophomore designated hitter Jeff Smith, unloaded them with a three-run triple.
Suddenly it was 5-0, and Anna hadn’t even sent its first batter to the plate.
“They kinda had, I hate to call it, a seeing-eye hit,” Muehlfeld said of Purcell’s single. “We had set up a force and had the ball slip through the left side.”
“He came through big time,” Kunkel said of Purcell’s hit. “And that was a big hit for Jeff.”
Purcell said he had struggled at the plate recently.
“I haven’t been getting a good swing,” he said. “I’ve been concentrating on my swing and making contact. I just wanted to put the ball in play.”
Purcell broke out of his slump in a big way, going 2-for-3 with a sacrifice bunt, a stolen base, three RBIs and two runs scored.
“They don’t have any weak links in that lineup,” Muehlfeld said of the Rams.
Badin made it 6-0 in the third inning when Cassano led off with a single and eventually scored on a wild pitch. Run-scoring singles by Zach Toerner and Wurzelbacher helped the Rams score two more runs in the fourth, and doubles by Wurzelbacher (who went 2-for-3 with a walk) and Staarmann helped Badin add three more runs in the sixth.
McKinney struck out 12 and walked only one. Anna’s pitchers walked 12.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.
