×

Raiders leave no doubt

STRUTHERS — From the moment the South Range baseball team reported for practice in February, the Raiders had one thought foremost on their mind.

“From the start of the year our goal was to at least win the district title and hopefully make it farther than that,” South Range junior pitcher Sam Brooks said. “This is what we’ve all been working towards.”

In Thursday’s Division III district final, the Raiders followed through on their mission by demolishing Mogadore 11-1 in five innings at Cene Park.

The third-seeded Raiders (14-15) capture the first district title in program history and advance to take on 11th-ranked Apple Creek Waynedale in a Division III regional semifinal at 2 p.m. Thursday at Massillon High School. Fifth-seeded Mogadore drops to 9-7.

“This is great for our school and our community,” South Range senior shortstop Brandon Youngs said. “South Range has been playing baseball for a lot of years without winning a district and it means a lot to be the ones that were able to break through.”

In their first year as an independent after the breakup of the Inter-Tri County League, the Raiders entered the year without a league title to shoot for, but resolved to make the best of the situation by loading up the schedule as much as possible with bigger schools. While South Range’s record took a hit, the Raiders believed their schedule would only make them a tougher, more battle-tested team come tournament time.

“You ask yourself what you have to play for during the regular season,” South Range coach Jim Hanek said. “We scheduled some very difficult teams with the goal to improve a little bit each game. In the back of our minds, we were prepping for the district. We were forced to get better given the schedule we played.”

“I think not being in a conference helped us a lot,” Youngs said. “We were able to go out and play whoever we wanted and we tested ourselves a lot more this year. We didn’t have the best record, but the schedule made us a lot better and it shows.”

The Raiders certainly looked like the clearly superior team on Thursday. They dropped the hammer early with two runs in the first inning and seven in the second to take a 9-1 lead. The issue was never in doubt after that.

The Wildcats burned through ace Mitchell Markusic during Wednesday’s nine-inning victory over Columbiana and Thursday’s starter Jake Weigand struggled with his command from the outset.

He was removed with one out in the second inning after walking three batters, hitting three more and surrendering seven runs.

Josh Stear got the Raider attack started with a two-run single in the first inning and followed up with a sacrifice fly in the second. Ben Rivera went 2-for-3 with a triple and two RBIs, while Mike Cunningham added a two-run single.

“My hitters were very patient today and we took advantage with a couple of key hits,” Hanek said. “Scoring nine runs in the first two innings really puts you at ease.”

After getting nicked for a first inning run, Brooks never gave the Wildcats any hope the rest of the way, breezing through five innings of one-hit ball with seven strikeouts and one walk.

The game was over so quickly there was barely any need for the lights at Cene Park.

“I really settled in and threw strikes after those early runs,” Brooks said. “Having an eight-run lead took so much pressure off my shoulders.”

Game notes

• This was the fourth time in the last six seasons South Range advanced to a district final.

•Twenty-one of South Range’s 29 games this season have come against Division I and II teams.

• The Raiders ran wild on the bases Thursday. They were 4-for-4 on steal attempts and also took advantage of five wild pitches and two passed balls.

• South Range sent 12 batters to the plate during its seven-run second inning.

• The last time the Struthers Division III district final featured two public schools was 2010 when Berkshire defeated Grand Valley.

• Waynedale is 20-6 overall and advanced to the regional by defeating ninth-ranked Hillsdale 5-3 in the Creston district final Thursday.

• Hanek said the Raiders are going to try and tune up for the regional with a game against Struthers Division II district champ Canfield early next week.

MO: 1-0-0-0-0–1-1-1

SR: 2-7-2-0-x–11-7-2

SR–Sam Brooks, wp, (5IP, 7K, 1BB) and Jared Bajerski.

MO–Jake Weigand, lp, (1 1/3 IP, 0K, 3BB), Will Popa (2/3 IP, 0K, 0BB), Ty Johnston (1 IP, 1K, 0BB), Gavin Christy (1IP, 1K, 0BB) and Dylan Smith.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.39/week.

Subscribe Today