ARCANUM – The Arcanum baseball team closed out WOAC league play with a 3-1 win over undefeated Newton to claim at least a share of the Western Ohio Athletic Conference Championship.
In the fourth year of the league, the game between Arcanum and Newton has decided the league champion three times.
In 2021-22, Arcanum and Newton shared the title; in 2022-23, Arcanum beat Newton to win the title outright. In 2023-24, Dixie defeated Newton to win the title.
Arcanum’s win Thursday night guarantees them at least a share of the WOAC title as they finished 10-1 in the conference.
Newton 7-1 in the conference still controls their shot for a share of title, but they have to win their last three league games versus Tri-County North, Ansonia, and Preble Shawnee.
Arcanum defeated Tri-County North 10-0 the previous night, and coach Baker made sure to emphasize the importance of that game to be in the position they were in.
“I told our guys yesterday we had to win last night’s game to get the privilege of playing in these big games. That’s what you work all season for, and now to at least have a share of a championship and maybe win a title outright, that’s why we play the game,” Baker stated.
Arcanum struck first with a leadoff hit from Derek Longstreth to left field. Lucas Miller hit a double scoring Longstreth, and that was followed by hot-hitting Luke Stephens with a single to right field plating Miller for the quick 2-0 lead.
“The start by our team was huge in a game like this, and we talked about that, here lately we haven’t been getting off to good starts, and getting those two runs was huge,” Coach Baker commented.
It also doesn’t hurt to know that you’re sending out junior pitcher Regan Christ to the mound. Christ struck out two of the three hitters in the top of the 1st inning and all three in the second.
Regan threw a complete game, going the full seven innings, giving up just two hits, four walks, and had 12 strikeouts, but gave up one run in the top of the fifth inning.
After walking the leadoff hitter, Bronson Van Culin, an error in the field allowed Van Culin to advance to third base and Cole Alexander to second. Rhett Koffer then drew a walk to load the bases with no outs, giving Newton their best opportunity to do some damage.
Christ struck out to the next batter for the first out. Will Bowser followed and was able to push a run home with a long fly ball to right field to score Van Culin, making it 2-1.
Arcanum wasn’t out of the woods yet, with runners on second and third and two outs, the Indians still had a chance to tie or take the lead. Christ was able to buckle down and get a strikeout to end the inning for a narrow 2-1 lead.
Baseball is a game of momentum, and Arcanum went to work to try and wrestle it back.
Jace Mote led off the bottom half of the fifth inning with a base hit to center. Longstreth picked up his 2nd hit of the game to third base, and Arcanum had two on with no outs.
Newton pitcher Cole Alexander coaxed a ground ball to get a force at second base for the first out, and the Trojans had runners on first and third.
Luke Miller was able to get Mote home on a fly ball to right field, taking the run back for a 3-1 lead heading into the sixth inning.
“When they (Newton) got that run and we answered right away, that was really huge, to get momentum back in our dugout,” Baker emphasized.
The Trojans behind Christ closed the game out strong to earn the victory and at least a share of the WOAC Championship.
We (both teams) know this game is big, we circle them, I’m sure, they circle us, and the nice thing is, we play them late in the year, which builds up to this point of being a big game with two quality programs battling it out. They are very fundamental, and they do things right. They’re pitching was excellent tonight, so it was key for us to get off to the kind of start we did,” Baker concluded.
Cole Alexander pitched well enough to win most games, throwing six innings, he gave up 6 hits, 3 runs, 2 walks, and struck out 9 hitters.
Newton coach Jordan Kopp was pleased with Alexander and the game he pitched.
“That’s a good baseball game, 3-1. Two of the top teams in the conference. Cole threw awesome, he was on it … but they have a really good pitcher who made it tough on us today,” Kopp explained.
“You know, when you spot them two runs, it makes it difficult, but our kids didn’t back down. We got runners on base a few innings right after that, and we scored a run late. The big thing for us is that we didn’t really get the timely hit. A couple of strikeouts with guys in scoring position didn’t put too much pressure on them defensively to make plays. But it’s a credit to Randy and their guys, that’s a good ball club,” Kopp complimented.
“You know we have three league games left but we still have an opportunity to share the conference title, we got some work to do, but our kids are excited for the challenge,” Kopp concluded.
Arcanum improves to 13-5 overall and 10-1 in the WOAC. They will back in action on Monday at Franklin.
Newton fell to 14-4 overall and 7-1 in the WOAC. They will host Covington Friday night.
