By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

ARCANUM — The Arcanum Trojans baseball team claimed the outright WOAC title with a 10-0 win over Newton at home on May 9. The two programs shared the title last season, but the Trojans win it this year with a 10-1 conference record. Arcanum is now home to the baseball and softball WOAC champions.

Head coach Randy Baker said after losing the conference game at Tri-Village early in the season, the team has been rolling. They are 14-1 since that loss.

“Good win for us against a quality program. The guys worked hard. We lost in the league earlier in the season and they responded since then. We’re playing really good baseball right now, very proud of these guys,” Baker said.

In the first two innings, both teams didn’t get much going at the plate. Arcanum had a baserunner in the first inning while Newton did get a couple of runners on, but couldn’t drive any home.

Then in the bottom of the third, Arcanum had runners on first and second with no outs. Junior Dakota Kendig dropped a bunt down the third base line. Forcing the left handed pitcher to make a tough play to first, the throw was wide and went down the right field line. Two runs scored to give the Trojans a 2-0 lead.

A wild pitch scored another run to make it a 3-0 lead. Seniors Carson Tegtmeyer and Aiden Psczulkoski each had a RBI hit. Senior Caden Thompson and freshman Regan Christ each had a sacrifice flyout to drive in a run. The flyout capped off a seven-run third inning for Arcanum. The team had bases loaded three separate times in the inning.

Baker said once they a few runs on the board, he felt good. But the team just kept on rolling from there.

“That got us rolling there. After that, we put the ball in play and we had a couple of sacrifices that inning, sacrifice flys, to score runs which was huge,” Baker said. “I said in the dugout three runs would win this game. Both of our pitchers were working. When we got the three, I felt pretty good about it at that point,”

The team scored three more runs in the fourth. Senior Bryson Sharp scored on a double steal attempt to go up 8-0. Christ drove in two more runs to make it a 10-0 game.

Then with Christ on the mound, Newton went down in order to give Arcanum the run rule win and the WOAC title all to themselves.

Baker said Christ did a good job on the mound even with having traffic on the base pads in the first four innings. It also helps to have a good defense behind him.

“Regan did a heck of a job. With the defense we got behind him, we’re solid,” Baker said.

Christ finished with six strikeouts while allowing three hits in the game with the shutout. He had three RBI at the plate.

The team will next host Coldwater on May 11 at 5 p.m. and then end the regular season with a road trip to Fort Recovery on May 13 at 12:30 p.m.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]