Power surge

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DECATUR — The pieces were set in recent years, but the performance didn’t always match.

Two years ago, Jay County got shut out in the sectional final.

Last season, on the heels of the team’s first conference title in a decade, the offense was late in a semifinal loss.

Monday, Jay County used a page out of the book from the program’s last team to win a sectional title.

Hit it over the fence. Often.

The Jay County High School baseball team hit six home runs, including three in the second inning, in a 15-8 victory over the Heritage Patriots on Monday to win the Class 3A Sectional 23 championship at Bellmont.

“It’s awesome,” said JCHS senior Cole Stigleman, who had two solo home runs, the first of which was back-to-back with Payton Heniser. “Last year we didn’t come out very strong and lost the first game. This year was a whole different vibe. We were in it the whole game. Just to win three (sectional games) in a row, win it (and) beat some good teams, it feels awesome.”

It is the first sectional title since 2007 for Jay County (19-5), which then featured home-run hitters Michael Jobe and Josh Ludy. This year’s Patriots advance to the Bellmont regional and play No. 8 NorthWood at 1 p.m. Saturday.

“I think the biggest thing when you go up and down the lineup, we can hit,” said JCHS coach Lea Selvey. “But probably more importantly, they’re all great friends. They all root for each other and their closeness and camaraderie is just huge.”

Noah Arbuckle, the lone underclassmen in the lineup who started at pitcher, kicked things off for Jay County in the bottom of the second inning with his second home run of the year, a towering two-run shot to left field.

Mitchel Frasher singled and then Heniser went deep to right field the opposite way for his fourth homer — second of the tournament — and two pitches later Stigleman launched one to left.

Jay County tacked on another run as Ethan Myers extended his hitting streak to 12 straight games with an RBI single.

Heritage, which seemed to stick around for most of the game no matter what Jay County did at the plate, cut the deficit in half over the next two frames.

But Myers went deep to left for a two-run shot in the home half of the fourth, putting his Patriots out front 8-3. Once again, the visiting Patriots struck back, plating a run on a wild pitch and a groundout in the top of the fifth.

One frame later Heniser put the game well out of reach for Heritage.

Frasher led off with a single to right field before moving to third on an errant pickoff attempt from the Heritage catcher. Facing a 1-2 count, Heniser sent a two-run blast to left for his second of the game, third of the tournament and team-leading fifth of the season.

“We like to hit line drives, hit up the middle and make them throw strikes,” Selvey said. “But they got the right pitches today. Right kids at the right time. I don’t know what they ate for breakfast but they need to eat more of it.”

Jay County scored three more times in the inning as Myers hit another RBI single and Daniel Fugiett nearly joined the home run party by drilling a single off the fence in left field to score courtesy runner Caleb Webster.

Stigleman finished his two-homer day with a rocket to left field that got out in a hurry during the bottom of the sixth inning. Max Moser reached home on a passed ball later in the inning for the final run.

“Home runs are big confidence boosters,” said Stigleman. “And we had six. I never would have thought we would hit six in a game. Payton’s (first) was a big one. It was a shot. Just fed off of it and just kept playing.”

Heniser and Myers both finished with four RBIs, while Myers led the way with three hits. Arbuckle added a single.

Joel Deakins was 4-for-4 with three RBIs in the loss for Heritage.

Despite allowing six runs — four earned — on eight hits over four innings, Arbuckle earned his team-leading seventh win of the season. He struck out one and walked a pair.

Isaac Moeller threw 2/3 innings of relief before giving way to Ryan Schlechty for the final 2 1/3. Schlechty fanned four, walked one and gave up two runs on three hits.

When it was all said and done, as Jay County put in the past decade-plus of smelling championships or having what often felt like the right team to win a sectional only to come up short, the Patriots were given championship t-shirts as they basked in the heat with friends and family on Memorial Day to celebrate a title.

“We are extremely tight,” Stigleman said. “We’re all close. We grew up together. It’s awesome to do this and win a sectional championship with your friends.”

“It feels great,” Heniser added. “I think we’ve all worked for this all high school career. Honestly I couldn’t see a better way to celebrate it.”