The “last” place for bad weather on Tuesday is in Fort Loramie as the Division IV Redskins and D-IV Russia battle for “first” place in the Shelby County Athletic League. This past Monday, wintry-like conditions won out and postponed the SCAL clash to April 25.
ScoresBroadcast.com will cover the contest at 4:25. Jack Kramer and Bryant Billing will be on the call. The first pitch is set for 5.
The defending state champion Raiders are 11-1 overall and 7-0 in the SCAL, through play on Thursday, and have shut out five of their last six foes.
Likewise, Fort Loramie is streaking, having won seven in a row, heading into its own invitational tourney on Saturday. The Redskins are 9-2 on the spring and 6-0 in the league.
Each club owns a victory over Versailles in the Midwest Athletic Conference. The Tigers and St. Henry have two-game leads on the rest of the field in the MAC.
Both Russia and Fort Loramie lost to D-III Coldwater. Russia edged Marion Local which thumped Fort Loramie.
If the weatherman responds, you can bet the young men on the field will respond, too, as the pair of programs continue their healthy, highly competitive rivalry. Fort Loramie has won 14 of the clubs’ last 22 head-to-head battles, but Russia has been more successful recently in tournament encounters.
Russia triumphed at home last year, 5-2, and then Fort Loramie evened the season series, 4-1, on its field. The Raiders flipped the script on Fort Loramie in the 2022 regional championship, 7-1, the same score by which the Redskins upended Russia in 2021.
The young Raiders got red hot and steamrolled through the 2022 state tournament, knocking out favorites Newark Catholic and Van Wert Lincolnview. Russia walloped Lincolnview, 10-4, in the title game to earn the school’s second state crown in baseball.
Two springs ago, after beating Russia in the tourney, Fort Loramie journeyed all the way to the state semifinal before dropping a 3-2 heartbreaker to eventual state champ Warren John F. Kennedy.
Russia is not lean on experience any longer. Still fielding numerous underclassmen, the Raiders have logged valuable time on the field together while taking the measure of the opposition in 36 of their last 43 games.
The high quality pitching depth continues to be a major asset for Russia. The Raiders staff has allowed less than 60 base hits in a dozen contests and only 20 walks. They are throwing two strikes for every one pitch out of the strike zone.
During Russia’s current streak of innings pitched without giving up a run, Braylon Cordonnier tossed six innings; Ross Fiessinger, six more; and Xavier Phlipot, three. The season earned run average for all Russia hurlers is a microscopic 1.2.
Meanwhile, Fort Loramie’s arms are also helping set the pace for the Redskins recent success. Lefty Christian McGee and righthander Maverick Grudich have permitted only 25 hits in close to 50 innings on the bump. Each has yielded a scant total of four earned runs on the season.
Best guess is that Tuesday’s diamond duel between the Redskins and Raiders is a low scoring tilt. In the last six regular season clashes between the two, Russia and Fort Loramie have combined to tally only 31 runs.
Redskins Collin Lessing and Max Cotner are tagging the baseball at the plate for averages better than .400. Cordonnier, Zane Shappie, and Hayden Quinter are doing the same for Russia.
Programs in the west central part of the state continue to play the best small school baseball in Ohio. This week, in its one and only statewide ranking that includes all four divisions of Ohio high school baseball teams, Max Preps rated Russia 14th, St. Henry 15th and Coldwater 16th.
Fort Loramie won state championships in 2018, 2010 and 2007. Russia earned titles in 2022 and 1971. Anna took state crowns in 1980 and 1972.
Midwest Athletic Conference powerhouse Coldwater has recorded seven state championships on the diamond. Minster and St. Henry have each won three titles. Parkway has produced a couple state crowns in baseball.
According to the latest updates on OHSAA district board websites around Ohio, four of the six northwest district baseball champs in D-IV play at the Elida regional this spring, while one district champ feeds into the northeast regional and another advances down to the Lancaster region. The Coldwater district, which includes the D-IV MAC schools, produces a winner advancing to Elida.
Interestingly, the most common belief is that the D-IV southwest region at Princeton will receive one of the two district champs from Paint Stadium in Chillicothe. This last occurred in 2016 when Reedsville Eastern played at Springfield.
The baseball tournament draw statewide takes place on Sunday, May 7.
