ARCHBOLD WEATHER

Bryan Mauls Archbold 10-1 To Win State Title


Drake Mohring, left, and DJ Newman were named to the 2019 All-Tournament Team at the state Acme tournament.– photo by Mary Huber

Drake Mohring, left, and DJ Newman were named to the 2019 All-Tournament Team at the state Acme tournament.– photo by Mary Huber

It’s tough to beat the same team three times in a season, let alone four times.

But that’s exactly what Bryan (27-2) did during the Acme baseball season, defeating Archbold 9-3 on June 21, 6-4 in eight innings on June 24, 7-4 on June 27, and the icing on the cake– a 10-1 victory in the state championship game, Monday, July 22, at Coldwater.

It is Bryan’s second straight title, after Archbold won the 2016 and 2017 state championships.

“We knew they were good. I could have circled the team to at least be in the finals before the tournament even started,” said Kirk Weldy, Archbold head coach.

“We knew they were gonna be good, and they showed it.”

The Bears collected a whopping 15 hits in the final, while the Streaks had only two base hits from Brandon Taylor and Noah Garcia.

“We absolutely knew that” Bryan was going to get hits, said Weldy.

“We played them three times. We knew that they were, (batters) one through nine, gonna be solid. We knew they were gonna put the ball in play.

“We had four big errors, and I’ll tell you the difference they had huge two-out hits, and when they scored it they kind of cracked (the game) open.”

Bryan scored two runs in the first inning, one in the second, two in the third, and two in the fourth for a 7-0 lead going into the fifth.

Archbold avoided a shutout by scoring a run in the top of the fifth inning. Brayton Hobbs was walked with one out, and Taylor made base on Bryan’s only error of the game.

Garcia hit a single to right field that scored Hobbs to close the gap to 7-1, but Archbold left two runners stranded on base as Drake Mohring hit a flyout to center field.

The Bears came back and scored three more runs, giving them a 10-1 lead that held for the final.

Archbold left runners on base in five of the seven innings.

“We had opportunities, especially with two outs, to crack something open, get a couple of runs,” said Weldy. “We just needed one spark, and we couldn’t find it.

“Losing 10 seniors, guys in different spots, guys not used to playing (with) each other– I give them a lot of credit for stepping up and getting to this point.

“Especially in big games, when you know they’re gonna hit, that two-out hit is huge, and that could have gave us a spark to maybe get something going, but give (Bryan) credit. They made the play and got out of it.”

Dom James, Bryan’s number two pitcher, struck out 10 Archbold batters and walked five.

“He’s got a lot of movement on his fastball, and I think he kind of sets up his curve ball to kind of sneak that fastball by,” said Weldy.

“When he has the stuff like he had tonight, you try to put the ball in play, but it’s tough. He got in a rhythm and he stayed in that rhythm.”

Ethan Hagans suffered the loss on the mound. In 1 inning he allowed two runs on five hits, and struck out two.

Archbold finished with a 17-8 record.

“I told the guys I was extremely proud of what they did,” said Weldy.

“Losing 10 huge seniors… we had one guy on our starting lineup (Drake Mohring), and he was DH (designated hitter) this spring, and go to the summer, and you’re working with new guys, you’re working with new faces, they had to learn how I coach, I had to learn how they played.

“And from the first game we played against Anthony Wayne to right now, the strides that they had– I hope this kind of leads into the springtime and hopefully does something good there, too.

“They did everything I asked. I pushed them maybe a little farther out of their comfort zone, but… they listened, they worked at it, they came together, especially come tournament time when we got in some tough situations, and I really like the growth that they had.”