After league losses, Eagles go on historic tourney run

Eastwood baseball did not win a Northern Buckeye Conference championship, but the Eagles stepped it up during tournament play to make a Division III regional appearance.

The Eagles finished 26-4 overall, tying a school record for wins, and was ranked ninth in the final state poll. 

Eastwood coach Kevin Leady and Clay coach Jim Phillips are the Alan Miller Jewelers All-Press Co-Coaches of the Year. Both are at the helm at their high school alma mater and both played NCAA Division I baseball — Leady at Bowling Green and Phillips at Youngstown State.

Despite the tournament run, three of Eastwood’s four losses were in the NBC and the Eagles finished 11-3, two games behind 20th-ranked Lake, which beat the Eagles twice. The Eagles were also shut out by Otsego.

Eastwood’s fourth loss came to Baltimore Liberty Union, which defeated the Eagles 4-1 in a regional semifinal in Elida behind the pitching of 6-foot-1, 170-pound senior right-handed pitcher Jacob Miller, who has committed to play at the University of Louisville. 

Leady says Miller reached 95 miles-per-hour seven times, threw a slider between 83 and 85 MPH, and believes it likely Miller will get drafted by a MLB team before playing college baseball. Miller could not throw in the regional final, so Liberty Union lost to unranked Archbold, 8-3. The Blue Streaks advanced to the state final, losing to Cincinnati Hills Christian, 4-1.

Eastwood’s tournament run up to that point was because of stellar pitching from junior Lake Boos, sophomore Ethan Rapp and senior Jared McNulty. Boos and Rapp are first team All-Press hurlers.

Eastwood defeated Columbus Grove 8-0 to advance to the district tournament, where they shut out Allen East, 3-0, in the semifinal. Both Allen East and Columbus Grove are out of the Northwest Conference. In the district final, the Eagles defeated Minster 2-1 in nine innings. The Wildcats are out of the Midwest Athletic Conference, which has won 141 state titles in multiple sports.

In the win over the Grove Bulldogs, Rapp pitched a complete game shutout, striking out nine, walking four, and allowing four hits. First team All-Press junior catcher Andrew Arntson went 2-for-2 with a double and sophomore Jordan Pickerel, a second team All-Press first baseman, and Boos, also a first team outfielder, belted doubles.

In the win over Allen East, Boos went seven innings on the mound, striking out 11, walking one and allowing three hits. He needed just 90 pitches, 60 for strikes. Arntson and sophomore Case Boos, a second team All-Press shortstop, had doubles.

Against Minster, Rapp returned to the mound, but Minster got on the board in the first inning because of an error. The Eagles tied the game with a run in the top of the sixth and got the winning score in the ninth, even though they had out hit Minster 9-2.

In seven innings, Rapp struck out seven, walked four and allowed two hits and one run that was not earned. He threw 112 pitches, 64 for strikes, and he completed three successive tournament games, covering 23 innings, where Eastwood pitching did not allow an earned run.

“In the district final, they only scored because we had an error. Beating them in anything is nice,” Leady said.

Getting the win on the mound against Minster was McNulty, an honorable mention All-Press selection who this year was 3-1 and allowed 14 hits and 17 runs, but only five were earned. He struckout out 23 and walked 12 with a 1.21 ERA in 29 innings.

“We thought that, first of all, McNulty is our top reliever, and he did a heck of a job,” Leady said. “When we could get him the ball, we felt like we had a really good shot to win. When we turned it over to him in the district title game, we thought we had a real solid shot to win there.”

In his two innings against Minster, McNulty did not allow a hit or run, and only one hitter reached on a walk as he faced the near-minimum seven batters. He needed 23 pitches, 14 for strikes.

At the plate, Case Boos went 3-for-5 and Lake Boos went 2-for-4 with a double in the top two slots of Eastwood’s batting order. Sophomore Jackson Bauer, an honorable mention All-Press outfielder, belted a triple and Pickerel had a double.