Baseball Generals get double celebration at banquet

  • brian questel
  • May 25, 2011
  • 269
                        
053011 WHSbbwinsOCC Promo: First-year coach, first-team title as Wooster baseball team wins OCC Baseball Generals get double celebration at banquet By Brian Questel There was a quarter-century gap between Wooster’s High’s last baseball championship and its Ohio Cardinal Conference title in 2008. The wait for the next one wasn’t nearly as long. After losing a 2-1 decision in eight innings on May 14 to put their season in jeopardy, the Generals rebounded a week later to thump the Arrows 14-5. That win, which closed Wooster’s OCC slate at 13-1, left the Generals in a waiting game to see what the 11-1 Arrows would do in their final two games. While the Generals were enjoying their season with a banquet May 24, the in-house celebration jumped a notch after West Holmes shocked the Arrows in their conference finale, giving the crown to Wooster outright. Wooster ended head coach Derek Boyd’s first season with an 18-6 mark overall and won the OCC, a game in front of the 12-2 Arrows. “I didn’t set a number of wins at the beginning of the season,” said Boyd. “Our expectation first and foremost was to change the direction of the program. The administration made it clear to me they wanted a change … so my biggest focus was to turn this thing around and start to earn some respect by doing things the right way. Obviously our goal was to win the league, but was it expected? No, things kinda went our way. “Too many things can happen in baseball. We were fortunate they bounced our way this year.” That’s the way things went in the second game with Ashland as Wooster put pressure on the Arrows out of the gate with two runs in the top of the first. Ashland responded, tying the game in its half of the frame, but the Generals added three in the top of the second and extended its advantage to 7-2 in the top of the fourth. After Ashland closed to 7-3 in the bottom of the fourth, Wooster blew the game open with a 6-spot in the fifth. Junior Luke McGee came up big for the Generals on the mound and at the plate. He handcuffed the Arrows, going 5.2 innings and allowing three earned runs (five total). He struck out four but walked only two to go along with the seven hits he allowed. Offensively, he was 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles, while Tyler Etter had two hits for Wooster, including a double, and Devin Daugherty also stroked a two-bagger. Ashland recovered immediately after that loss to keep its hopes alive. “They played West Holmes right after us … and beat them 7-5,” said Boyd. “They had to play West Holmes again (May 24) and West Holmes beat them 14-4. That was a very pleasant text message to get during the banquet. We’re ecstatic, to say the least.” Boyd felt the Generals’ season was defined in early April. With the season already backed up because of rainouts, Wooster was already feeling the crunch. “We played Cloverleaf in the second week of April and it was our fifth game of the week, so we were dragging,” said Boyd. “We were tired and not used to playing every day. We looked lethargic early on and gave up some stolen bases and were not into the game too much. I let them know that wasn’t good enough. I didn’t care if we had to play 10 games in a row. “We were behind in the seventh inning, down three runs. We tried to challenge the kids that if they didn’t believe we could win, then they shouldn’t be in the dugout. One of the things I told them was if we have a chance to bat, we have a chance to win. We loaded the bases, got a hit and were down one. They brought in their No. 1 pitcher and we got a hit off him to tie the game. They intentionally walked Nick Buckingham and Seth Carnahan got the game-winning hit. “That was the turning point of the season,” he added. “They started to buy into what we were preaching. We were behind, but we found out we could win. In our two games with Orrville we were behind and we came back, and that carried over. We believed we had a chance to win every time we stepped on the field. “Mentally, we got better. If you believe you can win close games, you will be successful.” And that, as Boyd noted, was the story of the season, with the hardware to prove it.


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