CCS seeking breakthrough Division IV regional baseball win against Russia

It’s been a special run that Cincinnati Christian School’s baseball team would love to extend.

The Cougars (15-8) earned a Division IV district championship by beating Franklin Monroe 7-6 on a walkoff bunt last Saturday. Now they’re bracing for a 2 p.m. regional semifinal Thursday against Russia (19-9) at Carleton Davidson Stadium in Springfield.

For CCS, it will be the first regional appearance since the Cougars dropped a 6-2 decision to Sidney Lehman Catholic at this stage in 2012.

REGIONAL BASEBALL PREVIEWS

“I really feel like we’re playing our best ball right now,” third-year Cincinnati Christian coach Curtus Moak said. “I keep reminding our kids to respect the game and play the game well no matter the opponent.

“As coaches, we can scout ahead of time and do the best we can to understand who their pitchers are and get stats on their players, but we don’t play the uniform. We play the game. That’s the biggest encouragement I’ve been giving them.”

Russia, a tri-champion in the Shelby County Athletic League, was the state runner-up last season. Not that the Cougars are worrying much about that.

“Honestly, I had never even heard of the school until I heard that we were playing them if that tells you anything,” CCS junior pitcher Mitchell Smith said. “We’re pretty hyped. We’re ready to come out Thursday and kick some butt hopefully.”

Smith, a right-hander, will get the mound start for Cincinnati Christian. He’s 9-1 with a 2.07 earned run average and 55 strikeouts in 47.1 innings.

Fourth-year Russia coach Kevin Phlipot said he’s deciding between three experienced pitchers: Senior right-handers Hunter Cohee (6-1) and Jack Dapore (4-1), and junior lefty Daniel Kearns (7-3).

Phlipot doesn’t consider one to be the ace and generally picks his starter based on the matchup.

D-I REGIONAL SOFTBALL COVERAGE

“The first two guys throw hard — the lefty is kind of a soft thrower,” Phlipot said. “I think pitching’s our strong point. We had our top three pitchers come back from state last year, so that’s what we’ve kind of built our team around.

“I would say we’re not the most offensive threatening team, but we’ve got some guys that can hit. We like to pitch a little, play some defense, and hopefully get some timely hitting.”

Cohee is a two-time SCAL Player of the Year and is hitting about .450. Junior first baseman Carter Francis and senior shortstop Dion Puthoff are .400 hitters as well.

The Raiders have only hit three home runs as a team. Asked if his squad has some pop in the lineup, Phlipot replied, “No kids in high school have pop anymore with these bats they use. We’ve got some little guys that can put the ball in the gap every now and then, but not much more than that.”

He said Russia had a tremendous amount of speed last year, but isn’t nearly as fast in 2018.

The Raiders have won two straight district titles and four in the last five years. They’re sharing the SCAL crown with Fort Loramie and Anna this season.

“This is a successful baseball school,” Phlipot said. “We’re a confident group. We’ve got a bunch of returning people that know getting to state is not impossible. They’re used to these types of games. I’m confident in their ability to at least perform in the stressful situations. It’s a lot of fun to see what kind of character they’ve got.”

Moak said he doesn’t know a great deal about Russia, which is located about 13 miles northwest of Piqua. He’s OK with that, preferring to focus on what his team does.

“I know about their top pitchers,” Moak said. “My understanding is nobody throws upper 80s or anything like that, but they’re very efficient with their pitches. They throw a lot of strikes and have a lot of experience.

“I think not having that experience works for us a little bit because we don’t have that nervous expectation. Our kids feel blessed to be there. They feel honored to be there.

“If they’ll field the balls they can reach, if they’ll throw strikes, if they’ll have quality at-bats, I think we have a chance of beating anybody in the state at this point. There’s only 16 of us left.”

CCS ruled the Miami Valley Conference Gray Division this spring. Moak said a confidence booster along the way was a 13-6 road victory over Cincinnati Country Day on April 19.

The Cougars likely won’t alter their small-ball mentality for this game. Freshman Connor Ploetz delivered the bunt that won the district title.

“You’ve got a kid up there that just turned 15 years old,” Moak said. “He’s had a hip injury for almost three weeks. That’s the first game he’s started in probably 10 games, and he’s up there in that situation with a strike and still lays down a great bunt. That’s the kind of kids we’ve got.”

Smith said there’s something special about this team.

“I think it’s just the way we connect with each other,” he said. “I’ve been a part of baseball all my life, and I’ve never really been part of a team that’s really had the connection that we have. It’s a brotherhood, we love each other, and we’re just out there having fun.”

Sophomore shortstop Alex Johnson (.500), Smith (.456) and senior left fielder Noah Jordan (.411) are Cincinnati Christian’s leading hitters. The Cougars have stolen an incredible 175 bases, led by Smith with 40 and Johnson with 36.

Moak won a Division I state championship as a player at Hamilton in 1997. He said this CCS tournament surge is taking him back to Big Blue’s title drive.

“Last-inning heroics and wearing blue and white — it takes me back 100 percent,” Moak said.

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