However, Kindell has seen enough crazy things in polls not to put a lot of stock in them. He remembers a year when Lebanon was ranked No. 1 in the state and dropped to second without losing a game.
“Polls are for fans to talk about,” Kindell said. “We are more focused on our next opponent. We are not playing for polls, we are just playing to clinch a GWOC title right now.”
Lebanon did, in fact, reach No. 1 in the state poll released Monday, receiving four first-place votes in moving up from second. In addition to knocking off No. 1 Gahanna Lincoln, the Warriors have wins over state-ranked Milford (5th), Lakota East (6th) and Greenville (2nd).
“If you look at the rankings, there are a lot of teams ranked in the state that we have played,” Kindell said. “I didn’t know we were first until they announced it before our game Monday (a 10-3 win over Miamisburg). We just try to put together a tough schedule and get the girls ready to play for a GWOC title and a long run in the postseason.”
Lebanon opened the Wendy’s Classic against top-ranked Gahanna Lincoln on April 21 at Brookside Park in Ashland. Using a mixture of small-ball and big hits, the Warriors pounded out a 8-4 win with Alexis Strother getting the win in the circle and Taylor Lewis throwing the final two innings.
“I thought we bunted the ball extremely well against them and they had a lot of problems handling the bunts,” Kindell said. “We didn’t really break it open in one inning, we just really continued to apply pressure to them and hit the ball really, really well.”
Lebanon had to turn around a few hours later and face Strasburg-Franklin in a game that began close to 9:30 p.m.
It looked like the Warriors were going to keep running away from teams after Strother hit a grand slam to give the them a 5-0 lead in the third inning.
Lebanon, however, uncharacteristically committed five errors in one inning to allow the score to be knotted at 5-5.
Strother hit another bomb, this one a two-run shot, to get the Warriors going again in a 14-5 win.
“It was kind of disappointing to see us blow a five-run lead, but good teams answer quick,” Kindell said. “Anytime you can come back and put runs on the board after they put runs on you, it is really good. We had 19 hits against a really good team.”
The Warriors stumbled in their final game in Ashland, losing 8-0 to Walsh Jesuit in a game where everything went wrong at one time.
With the bases loaded and two outs, a collision between a pair of Lebanon defenders allowed a ball to drop and sent Strother to the bench for concussion tests. Strother was scheduled to replace Lewis in the circle following that at-bat, but instead Lebanon had to get Kat Frank ready.
“By the time we got Kat loose it was 6-0,” Kindell said. “We just hit a little speed bump.”
Baseball: In the first state poll, Mason is ranked seventh in Division I and Lebanon 14th.
Of the 20 teams ranked, eight are from southwest Ohio and three from the Greater Miami Conference (Lakota West and Fairfield are also ranked).
Lebanon is ranked 14th in the poll by statewide coaches.
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