Coldwater’s AJ Harlamert steals second base against Napoleon during the State ACME Tournament semifinals Monday night at Defiance High School. Jeff Ratliff | Aim Media Midwest
DEFIANCE — Napoleon dug itself a hole and trailed state-tournament regular Coldwater by a pair of runs after the first inning in Monday’s ACME state semifinal game.
But the Wildcats settled into the moment from that point forward and catcher Luke Hardy made a pair of game-saving throws to catch Coldwater runners stealing to help propel Napoleon to a 6-5 win against the Cavaliers at Defiance High School.
“It’s a first for Napoleon baseball, I believe,” said Napoleon coach Shawn Thompson on making the state ACME championship game. “It’s a heck of a feeling, it’s a new standard of what (varsity) coach (Eric) Sprague has started in the spring and what we’re carrying on through here.
“Winning breeds confidence and its culture. It starts with that and you have to give all the credit to the kids for buying in. … It’s a heck of a culture to be around.”
Napoleon, which improved to 21-1 overall, will take on Indian Lake — a 6-5 winner against Defiance, the defending state champions, in the other semifinal — at 6 p.m. in the ACME state championship game Tuesday at the same venue. Coldwater finishes its season at 20-4.
Napoleon held a one-run lead entering the bottom of the seventh with the first three batters of Coldwater’s lineup due up. Braylen Harlamert, who had successfully stolen 31 of 33 bases to that point in the summer, drove an 85 miles-per-hour fastball back up the middle for a leadoff single.
However, after several pickoff throws to first base from Trey Rubinstein — who was pitching his first inning of the game — Harlamert broke for second on the third pitch of the at-bat. But Hardy fired a 128-foot strike to second base to get Harlamert stealing for the first out of the frame.
“He made the play when he had to. We’ve been timing him all year and Hardy has that capability … and he made a perfect throw, at the perfect time, in a perfect place for it,” Thompson said. “Gotta make plays, that’s what it comes down to, and he made the play to — I don’t know about win the game, but it was to settle everybody down. Because if he gets to second, that’s a (runner in) scoring position and now we’re tight. That loosened Trey up.”
Rubinstein nabbed that current batter on a strikeout looking and answered a Mason Welsch double with a game-ending groundout to first, while Hardy maintained the Wildcats’ narrow lead with a similar throw in the sixth inning.
The Cavs’ Baylen Blockberger belted a one-out double and Brady Lefeld followed with an RBI single to cut Napoleon’s lead to 6-5, but Hardy caught another runner attempting to steal second, which gave Napoleon a pair of outs with no runners on — a key out, as the next batter reached on an error before an inning-ending infield flyout limited Coldwater to the one run.
“The catcher threw us out twice — a lot of those boys haven’t been thrown out all summer, so they stopped our running game a little bit,” Coldwater coach Tom Brunswick said. “… Credit to them, they hit the ball.”
Jacob Shadle, who started on the mound for the Cats and fired six innings, bounced back after a rough first inning.
Shadle allowed three hits and a pair of runs on 22 pitches in the first inning, but he allowed just one run on 34 pitches across the next three innings, while igniting the team’s small-ball offense.
“The way he approaches it, he knows he only has a couple pitches and he has to be able to keep on grooving it in there, throw strikes,” said Thompson of Shadle, who tossed five consecutive balls to start the third inning before working back from a 3-0 count to get an out en route to allowing just one run. “… That just has to be his demeanor and that’s what he does. He works hard, he’s a grinder and that’s what we count on from him and that’s why we put him on the mound.”
As an immediate answer to Coldwater’s two first-inning runs, Lucas Gerken led off the top of the second with a walk and Parker Woods followed with a single before Shadle laid down a textbook bunt down the third-base line. Instead of just advancing the runners, the throw was hurried to first base, which soared past the first baseman and plated both runs to knot the score at 2-all.
Shadle also extended a three-run third inning with an RBI double to deep left-center, with Coldwater opting for a pitching change one batter later.
Devin Dietrich opened the third inning with a walk before sacrifices from Hardy and Gerken put Dietrich on third with two outs. Woods roped an RBI single before Shadle’s double and Cal Bickel knocked an RBI single to take a 5-2 lead.
“I’ve been saying the past couple days, once we get people on base, that’s how we make our magic. That’s how we operate, that’s how we work and that’s what we want to do,” Thompson said. “We’re not big hitters, we’re not heavy hitters, we’re not going to hit home runs, we’re not going to hit for a bunch of RBI, but once we got on the bases we can go.”
The Cavaliers never rolled over, though, scoring a run in the fifth and sixth innings to come within a run.
Braylen Harlamert and AJ Harlamert went back-to-back with a one-out walk and single, respectively, in the fifth to setup an RBI groundout by Welsch, while Blockberger and Lefeld had consecutive hits in the sixth to bring the Cavs within one run.
“Give credit to our boys for that. They stayed tough the whole game, they stayed into it, they’ve been that way since the very first day this season,” Brunswick said. “They had a great summer and came up a little bit short, but it’s not because of lack of effort that’s for sure.
“It was a good game to be a fan, but a tough game to be the losing coach.”
Shadle had a game-high three hits to lead Napoleon, while Owen Espinoza — who doubled — and Woods each had two hits.
Shadle earned the win, allowing five runs on eight hits with one walk and one strikeout across six innings, while Rubinstein allowed two hits with one strikeout in one scoreless inning of relief.
Lefeld, as well as Braylen and AJ Harlamert each had two hits to pace Coldwater, with Braylen Harlamert scoring a team-best three runs.
Cale Wenning, who was one of four Coldwater players with an RBI, suffered the loss, allowing five runs on six hits with three walks and one strikeout in 2 2/23 innings. Aaron Kaup allowed one unearned run on four hits with one walk and two strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings of relief.
Brandon Shrider of Aim Media Midwest wrote this story.
