The Cougars are unbeaten — 7-0 overall and 5-0 in the Miami Valley Conference Gray Division — after senior pitcher Mitchell Smith’s second no-hitter of the season. It produced a 12-0, five-inning triumph over Clark Montessori at the West Chester Baseball Complex on Thursday.
» PHOTOS: Rick Cassano’s gallery from the West Chester Baseball Complex
“The first words out of my mouth in the offseason were about what we know we can possibly do, but we don’t want to look ahead too far,” Moak said. “We put a lot of emphasis on very practical things. Field the ball, see the ball, hit the ball. I keep it as basic as I can as much as I can because they’re still kids and they can lose focus pretty easily.”
Cincinnati Christian snuck up on the Division IV postseason last year, surging all the way to the regional finals before suffering an 8-7 loss to eventual state champion Fort Loramie.
Most of that CCS squad is back in 2019. The Cougars have fashioned a 102-10 margin of victory through seven games.
“We’re always going to work on our craft, but right now I think we’re pretty solid everywhere,” said Smith, who will play for Indiana Wesleyan University next season. “We try to think of last year not as a run, but as something we earned. We’ve got to take that mentality and really run with it.
“We’re trying to carry that momentum over. We know we’ve got a target on our backs now and we’re going to get everybody’s aces, so we’re going out with confidence every day.”
Cincinnati Christian has two games with North College Hill to begin next week — Monday at the West Chester Baseball Complex, Tuesday on the road — before starting a critical stretch against Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy on Thursday at Prasco Park.
The Cougars will meet CHCA, Seven Hills twice and Cincinnati Country Day in an eight-day span.
“We’ve had that week on our radar all year,” Moak said. “I feel if we go 3-for-4 that week, we’ve had a really good week. If we are at least 2-2, we’ve had a solid week because those are all tough games.”
CCS had no trouble with Clark thanks in large part to Smith, who singled, doubled and drove in a run while striking out 14 on the mound. An infield error halted his bid for perfection.
Clark, 2-3 overall and in the MVC Scarlet Division, was simply overmatched by the right-hander.
“Cody played a great game,” Smith said of sophomore catcher Cody Anderson. “I threw a lot of fastballs. They weren’t catching up to my fastball as much, and my curveball was working pretty well. That was kind of my out pitch because the slider was a little sloppy.”
It wasn’t a competitive contest, but Smith knows no-hitters don’t happen every day.
“Hey man, it still feels good,” he said. “A no-hitter’s a no-hitter. It’s good to get out there and win.”
Smith works at a brisk pace on the hill. First-year Clark coach Ryan Henning said that tempo didn’t help his squad.
“He’s definitely somebody to keep an eye on for the future,” Henning said. “As soon as the batter stepped foot in the box, he was ready to go right away. He only threw fastballs and changeups, and our guys just couldn’t catch up to it. We need to work with a little bit of positive energy coming into a game like this.”
Smith is 4-0 this season. He’s got 36 strikeouts in 18 innings.
“He throws a lot of strikes and mixes up speeds,” Moak said. “He doesn’t mess around out there, and we’ve sped his delivery up a little bit more. I love that for our defense because it keeps them on their toes.”
Anderson was 3-for-3 with two RBIs for CCS, and Alex Johnson and Trevor Allen both had two hits. Jacob Carroll, Bryce Jungkunz, Connor Ploetz, Tim Carangi, Johnson and Allen all contributed RBIs.
“Things are going very well right now,” Moak said. “We do have a little bit of concern about numbers and health. We only had 11 playable today.”
Henning is dealing with another kind of adversity. Ineligibility has depleted his roster.
“Right now, my whole philosophy is trying to rebuild the culture and bring everybody together,” Henning said. “I thoroughly love the job. My goal is to make these kids understand the importance of hard work, competing every day and not giving up.”
Clark will play Walnut Hills at 3 p.m. on Saturday at the Cincinnati Reds Youth Academy in Cincinnati.
Clark Montessori 000-00—0-0-1
Cincinnati Christian 606-0x—12-14-1
WP — Mitchell Smith (4-0); LP — Malachi Lawson (0-1). Records: CM 2-3, 2-3 MVC Scarlet; CC 7-0, 5-0 MVC Gray
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