Hawks enjoy another regional crown at Beavers Field
Hiland teammates Michael Miller, left, and Grady Monigold celebrate Colin Coblentz’s colossal home run, part of the Hawks’ 11-4 victory over a talented West Jefferson team in the Division VI Lancaster regional semifinal.
Beavers Field in Lancaster has become a home away from home for the Hiland Hawks baseball team, which has won six straight games there to earn a shot at state.
This year they added numbers five and six on June 5 and 6 with convincing wins including an 11-4 defeat of West Jefferson and a 10-0 whitewash over Chillicothe Southeastern.
It was a dominant performance in all phases of the game, with the key victory coming over a talented West Jefferson team in the semifinal that was the key contest at regionals.
The Hawks got outstanding pitching in both games, and both games saw Hiland take time to heat up offensively before exploding in typical fashion.
What’s not to like
When Hiland head coach Chris Dages went to pitcher Caden Coblentz to start the Hawks’ Division VI Lancaster regional semifinal contest at Beavers Field, he could sleep well knowing he had a guy taking the mound who has been there and done that before and been successful.
“The first inning, I thought to myself, ‘I love watching this guy pitch.’ He is so effective. It’s a pleasure to watch him pitch and has been for three years,” Dages said. “He’s got a different delivery style, but he’s so effective. It’s just a pleasure to watch him pitch.”
Coblentz really set the table for the victory by looking unhittable for the majority of the game. Only after a marathon fifth inning blitz offensively by the Hawks did he give up any runs, and the heat took a toll late, but for the most part, Coblentz was everything Dages could want in the regional opener.
That other Coblentz
isn’t bad either
Colin Coblentz, the other half of the Coblentz twins, also served a major role in the win, but nothing compared to his colossal clout in the sixth inning that had everyone talking.
Beavers Field is massive, the center-field fence sitting 390 feet away and the fence in right-center 370 feet. Those are Major League Baseball proportions, but none of that mattered on Coblentz’s monster shot.
With the Hawks leading 8-3 and one runner on, Coblentz hit a blast that cleared the wall over the 370-foot sign by at least 40 feet. It was so well hit that both outfielders took about three steps and gave up hope of tracking it down.
Asked about the shot, assistant coach Richie Mast said he’s never seen anything like it.
“The only guy I’ve seen at the high school level who compares to Colin is Luke Burch (former Hiland grad who went on to star at Kent State University and played Double-A ball in the Detroit Tigers organization). “But Luke didn’t have that type of power,” Mast said.
“That’s the best it has felt in a long time,” Colin Coblentz said. “Everything is kind of clicking for us as a team, and we’ve been stringing together hits, and the timing is coming together.”
It took a while
to get rolling
After three innings this looked like a pitchers’ duel.
Hiland’s bats caught fire with two runs in the bottom of the fourth, and then Hiland exploded for six in the fifth to put the game on ice. It may have taken a while, but eventually, Hiland’s brutal lineup got the job done.
“It’s been like that all year,” Dages said of his hitters. “When we started getting guys on base, the next guy wants to do something. He’s got a job to do. Whether it’s moving runners around, scoring a runner from third, they’ve got a job to do. They want to put the ball in play and get the job done, and once we start hitting, it’s been contagious.”
The stable is full
With Coblentz’s effort on the mound, the Hawks now had a plethora of quality arms waiting in the wings. Dages quickly turned first to a tried and trusted figure, senior Kaden Kandel, who has been a rock as Hiland’s No. 2 option all season.
Not that Dages couldn’t have gone in any number of directions with the ridiculous wealth of pitching this team has waiting in the wings.
Kandel indeed did his job, throwing a brilliant one-hitter en route to leading Hiland to a 10-0, five-inning win over Southeastern in the regional final tilt. The senior improved his record to 10-0 on the campaign, recording seven strikeouts in a dominant performance.
While that sounds like a blowout, Hiland was entwined in a scoreless game heading into the bottom of the fifth inning, having produced just two hits before the walls came tumbling down for Southeastern as the Hawks used a small-ball approach to pick apart their opponent.
The Hawks captured their third consecutive regional championship, adding to the host of banners hanging at Lehman Field by banging out seven hits in the decisive fifth inning.
During that final frame, Grady Monigold collected an RBI, giving him 44 on the year to set the single-season school record.
No complacency here
Hiland may have won two straight state titles and only lost one game this season, but the team remains hyper-focused on the task at hand. As two-time defending state champs, they know they have had a target on their back from day one, and Dages said nobody is taking anything for granted because they have had numerous players waiting in the wings this season to prove they belong.
“This team hasn’t done anything yet,” Dages said. “We’ve got a lot of experience and a lot of good ballplayers, but they want to prove they can do it again. They’ve got the hunger for sure.”