Long ball led to exciting afternoon

Editor’s note: In more than six years, sports editor Chris Schanz has seen his fair share of athletic contests. Some stick out more than others. In this “Greatest Games” series, he will reminisce about some of the games he’ll never forget witnessing.

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Great games don’t have to go down to the wire.

They don’t have to be won in walk-off fashion. Nor do they have to end on buzzer-beating baskets.

Great games can be those of pure dominance, such as Fort Recovery’s football state championship in 2015.

Or, for this iteration of the series, great games can be a hitting clinic, including a half dozen homers, to end a streak of sectional setbacks.

It’s Memorial Day 2018. The Jay County High School baseball team is playing in the sectional championship game.

The Patriots didn’t fare well their previous two postseasons. They were shut out in the sectional final in 2016. The following year, they won the program’s first conference title in a decade but bowed out of the sectional tournament in the semifinal after the offense showed up a tad too late

But this year, one which turned out to be the most historic in terms of postseason success, the offense made its presence early.

Then often.

The fireworks started in the second inning, when Noah Arbuckle hit a two-run home run to break the scoreless tie. Mitchell Frasher walked with two outs, then Payton Heniser joined the party with another two-run home run.

Two pitches later, Cole Stigleman made it back-to-back jacks. And a single later in the inning put Jay County ahead of the Heritage Patriots 6-0.

By the bottom of the fourth inning, Jay County’s advantage had been cut in half. But the Patriots were quick to tack on more runs.

Ryan Schlechty reached on a one-out single, and then Max Moser popped out to second. On a 2-0 count, Ethan Myers went yard, the Patriots’ third two-run home run and fourth of the game.

The power surge wasn’t done yet for Jay County, despite Heritage pulling to within two, 8-6, in the top of the fifth.

Frasher led off the home half of the fifth with a single. Heniser blasted a 2-1 pitch over the fence for his second round-tripper of the game, Jay County’s fifth homer.

Leading 10-6, Jay County benefitted from two balks and a wild pitch to score another run. Myers singled home one more, and Daniel Fugiett’s single to left made it 13-6 JCHS.

Heritage got a pair of runs back in the top of the sixth, but Jay County made sure to put the game well out of reach by matching the effort in the next half inning.

Stigleman wasn’t about to let Heniser be the only Patriot player with a multi-home run game that day. The speedster fell behind quickly 1-2 before fouling off the next pitch. The fifth offering of the at bat ended up over the fence in left field for a solo shot and a 14-8 Jay County lead. Later with two outs, Moser scored on an error for what turned out to be the game’s final run.

“We like to hit line drives, hit up the middle and make them throw strikes,” JCHS coach Lea Selvey said after his team won the program’s first sectional title since 2007 and the first of what turned out to be back-to-back sectional championships. “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.”

Stigleman said the first homer way back in the second inning set the tone for the rest of the afternoon.

“Home runs are big confidence boosters,” he said. “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.”

Before that game, Jay County had just 11 home runs on the year. Heniser, who ended up leading the team that season with five, had never gone deep in consecutive games during the regular season let alone hit two in the same game. It was also Stigleman’s first career game with two home runs. 

Myers and Arbuckle each ended the year with two home runs.

Jay County’s six-homer day was reminiscent of the 2008 Patriot squad that went deep plenty often on its own. That team featured prolific long-ball hitters Michael Jobe, Josh Ludy and Billy Wellman. The trio — Ludy went on to play for Baylor and get drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies while Wellman starred for Ball State — led the team to a whopping 65 homers, which ranks third all time in state history.

The 2018 Patriot team hit far fewer homers, but it did what the 2008 team couldn’t, and that’s win a sectional championship. Then the team from two years ago reached unprecedented territory by being among the final four teams in the state for the first time in program history with just its third regional championship.

(The 1992 and 1993 JCHS baseball teams to win regional lost in the semi-state semifinal. Now, the semi-state is just one game.)

The six-homer game was an offensive output that hadn’t been seen in more than a decade, and that’s what makes it one of the greatest games in recent memory.

“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.”