Beechwood’s baseball team was able to implement their strategy of causing problems on the basepaths early and often.
The Tigers circled around the bases, taking down St. Henry in Monday’s 9th Region Tournament Quarterfinal at Thomas More Stadium in Florence, 15-5 in five innings.
Despite collecting just eight hits with the 15-run output, the Tigers took advantage of eight Crusader walks, two hit by pitches, stole five bases and answered on four St. Henry errors.
“We try to wreak havoc on the bases, that’s for sure,” Tigers coach Kevin Gray said. “We got a lot of guys that get good jumps. The more pressure you put on the defense, the more mistakes they make, and the more good things happen for you. That’s our philosophy.”
St. Henry’s 1-0 lead after the first half inning was short lived. Beechwood put up five runs in the bottom half of the first before the Crusaders recorded their first out. By the end of the second inning it was 13-1.
It set up Beechwood nicely, the luxury of pulling starting pitcher Chase Flaherty after 55 pitches and three innings of work, which would make him available if the Tigers were to advance to Thursday’s championship.
“You do anything you can to save pitching this time of year,” Gray said. “I wanted to get off that field as fast as I could. We got Chase off early which is great and in this tournament that doesn’t happen very often so when you get the opportunity to do it, you do it.”
Flaherty was a little wild with three walks, allowing one hit, two runs, one earned and struck out four. Branton Stiles closed out the game in the final two innings allowing two hits, three earned runs, two walks and struck out three.
Flaherty and Keagan Hutton led Beechwood at the plate with two hits apiece, Hutton with two runs driven in, Flaherty with one. Tyler Fryman, Matthew Cottengim, Bobby Meier and Quentin Knasel drove in two runs apiece as well for the Tigers.
St. Henry showed some fight despite being down 13-1 after two. They added a run in the third and three in the fourth to get within 13-5 before the Tigers scored two in the bottom of the fifth to end it.
Jonathan Summers went 2-for-2 with the Crusaders, reaching base all three times and scoring three runs. Jackson Popil drove in two runs and Gage Peace drove in the other run for St. Henry, closing out their season with a 13-17 record. They’ll graduate six seniors.
The Tigers head to Wednesday’s semifinals and will face the winner of Monday’s nightcap between Conner and Newport Central Catholic.
BEECHWOOD 15, ST. HENRY 5 (5 INNINGS)
ST. HENRY — 101-30x-x — 5-3-4
BEECHWOOD — 670-02x-x — 15-8-1
2B — (B) Hutton, Fryman
3B — (B) Cottengim
RBI — (SH) Popil 2, Peace (B) Fryman 2, Hutton 2, Cottengim 2, Knasel 2, Meier 2, Flaherty, Carlisle, Edwards
WP — Flaherty. LP — Pilcher.
Records: Beechwood 24-10, St. Henry 13-17