LANCASTER − Kaden Kandel has carried the load on the mound all season for the defending Ohio High School Athletic Association Division VI state champion Hiland Hawks baseball team.
So not surprisingly, Kandel drew the starting assignment from head coach Chris Dages in the Hawks’ the biggest game of the season on Thursday in the Division VI regional championship game with Chillicothe Southeastern at Beavers Field.
“Kaden has been doing it for us all year,” Dages said. “I think this is his 10th win of the season, he commands a really nasty curve ball and throws his fast ball for strikes. And that’s all you can really ask for from your pitcher and Kaden does it very well.”
And once again, the Hiland senior righthander delivered to send Hawks to an impressive 3rd straight OHSAA Final 4 appearance.
Kandel tossed a dominating 1-hit shutout with 7 strikeouts to lead the Hawks to a 10-0 five inning victory to collect his team high 10the pitching win of the season.
“It feels good to come through in a big game for my team,” Kandel said. “I put a lot of trust in my defense which helps me to relax a lot. I just try to throw strikes and they take care of the rest. My defense made a lot of good plays tonight, knowing they have my back allows me to relax.”
“I really throw for contact mainly, I don’t try to rack up big strikeout numbers,” Kandel added. “I just try to fill up the strike zone and let them go to work behind me. I don’t have that much velo, I just try to hit my spots and again pitch to contact and let my guys go to work.”
Hawks needed ‘A Game’ effort from Kandel to clinch Final 4 berth
For the first 4 innings the regional title game was a classic pitching duel with Kandel and Southeastern lefty Drew Leach matching zeros to keep the game scoreless with each looking sharp.
Leach offered up an impressive outing of his own, and sailed through the game’s first four innings drawing kudos from Panthers’ head coach Ron Free.
“Drew pitched just an awesome game for four innings. He kept us in the game and gave us a chance,” Free said. “Drew just threw outstanding tonight, but we knew that big inning was coming. They are the defending champs for a reason, that hit from top to bottom of their lineup.”
“We used everything we had to get here, and I’m just so proud of my kids,” Free continued. “Tonight was a good barometer to see where we are as a program. And we are close, almost there and tonight we came here and competed against a very, very good baseball team.”
Leach took the loss, working 4.1 innings allowing 9 runs on 8 hits with a pair of strikeouts for Southeastern who finishes the season with a 16-11 final record.
Hiland offense comes alive with huge 5th inning explosion
In the bottom of the fifth inning, the potent Hiland offense came alive by sending 12 hitters to the plate, putting up a huge 10 run explosion to end the game by the 10 run mercy rule.
Hiland finished with 9 hits in the contest with Logan Yoder and Grady Monigold each banged out a pair of singles, with Monigold collecting a pair of RBIs. Colin Coblentz ripped a double to plate a pair of RBIs, with Caden Coblentz with an RBI single.
Hiland improves to 29-1 on the season and will now Sherwood Fairview in a Division VI state semifinal at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 14th at Thurman Munson Stadium in Canton.
“This was the goal from the beginning of the season,” Dages said. “To get back to Akron, so we still have to games to win to make it happen. But we are on the right road and feeling pretty good right now.”
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This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: 5th inning Hiland scoring explosion leads Hawks to 3rd consecutive OHSAA Final 4