Anthony Wayne Defends Junior ACME State Title
BY SCOTT CALHOUN — MIRROR SPORTS
With an entirely new cast of players and coaches, Anthony Wayne successfully defended its junior ACME summer baseball state championship last weekend.
The Generals swept two games from Wapakoneta in a best-of-three series at Greenville in Southwest Ohio.
Consisting of incoming sophomores and juniors, the 2010 Generals (19-6) repeated what former junior ACME coach Nate Whewell’s squad accomplished in 2009, but this time coach Rick Yunker and his staff guided AW back to the top even after a 1-4 start to the season.
“We had a real good weekend, for sure,” Yunker said.
No players from the 2009 roster played on the 2010 one. In fact, Whewell currently coaches the senior ACME Generals. Most of the 2009 players are competing on that team, which just secured AW’s third straight trip to the eight-team senior ACME state tournament in Celina.
“(AW varsity coach) Mark Nell is the real reason the players end up doing so well every year,” Yunker said. “He has a heck of a coaching staff and they do a great job with these kids.
“It made my job very easy and they get all the credit.”
At Greenville, the north region-winning junior Gen-erals dominated the south regional champion Indians with 8-0 and 4-1 victories, respectively.
Anthony Wayne’s pitching corps came through with steady arms, a trend that carried them throughout a 10-1 postseason.
Incoming juniors Bran-don Rasey and Brett Kuharchek each pitched complete-game gems in the state finals, with Rasey hurling a five-hit shutout in the opener and Kuharchek striking out 11 in his five-hit effort in the state-title clincher.
Rasey delivered his third shutout of the postseason and gave up one run overall over his final three postseason starts. Kuharchek was the team’s ace all season long while also hitting .537 with a few home runs during the playoff spree.
“When you have that kind of pitching, it makes the job of winning pretty easy,” Yunker said. “Kuharchek is the bulldog when he takes the mound, and I was really happy to see Rasey get his confidence back and pitch the way he did (in the playoffs).
“Really, as the juniors, Rasey and Kuharchek gave the team the leadership they needed.”
Incoming sophomore catcher Tyler Deye caught both gems in the two state final games and went 2-for-2 with two RBI and two runs scored in the 8-0 victory to earn the tournament’s Most Valuable Player award.
“He had a couple big hits and just called very good games behind the plate,” Yunker said.
As a team, the Generals were ferocious on offense, batting over .400 as a unit while averaging about 10 runs per contest.
Overall, the remarkable turnaround engineered by a mainly sophomore roster vindicated the Generals’ underrated diamond class of 2013.
“This class has never been given the nod as a group that would succeed, so I’m glad to see them do it,” Yunker said.
Members of the 2010 junior ACME state champion Generals include Rasey (P), Kuharchek (SS/P), Deye (C/P), Evan Hartzel (utility), Nick Reiter (P/1B), Zach Babb (P), Robbie Brubaker (C/OF), Tommy Eichenlaub (SS/2B), Jacob Hadley (OF).
Blake Hertzfeld (OF), Derek Hosler (C), Thomas Keyser (OF/1B), Nick Jackson P/3B), Cal Johnson (OF/ 1B), (Adam Larkins (OF), Alec Meyers (1B), Nick Smith (P/1B), Nick Veronica (2B) and Michael Yunker (3B).
Yunker’s assistant coaches are Mike Smith and Tom Eichenlaub.
AW 8, Wapakoneta 0
Rasey struck out six and walked five while allowing five hits, but Wapak never really threatened beyond the first inning, when the Generals used a rare 5-3-2 double play to diffuse a situation with Indians on second and third and nobody out.
After that, Rasey mostly dominated on the hill.
The Generals took a 1-0 lead in the third on Hartzel’ double to plate Deye. They tacked on two more runs in the fifth as Hartzel again got a timely single that scored Eichenlaub and Deye.
AW then took all the wind out of the Indians’ sails in the sixth, ripping into Wapak starter Josh Apple for five more runs. Cal Johnson led off with a double, Yunker singled and Hertzfeld’s sac bunt attempt morphed into an RBI single to make it 3-0.
Deye then delivered a two-run single before Keyser and Nick Smith each added one-run base knocks to bury the Indians.
The Generals collected all 13 of their hits off Apple over his six innings of work. He allowed eight earned runs.
Deye finished 2-for-2, Hartzel 3-for-4, Keyser 1-for-3 and Johnson 2-for-4.
Generals 4, Indians 1
Kuharchek gave up the only run allowed on a groundout RBI by opposing starting pitcher Chase Culder in the bottom of the fourth, but otherwise owned the Indians, allowing one walk in addition to the five hits.
The Generals found Culder stingy, too, but tapped into the Wapak hurler for all four runs in the top of third to give Kuharchek all the cushion he would need.
Deye kick-started the rally with a leadoff walk, Keyser dropped down a nice bunt single and both scored on groundouts by Hartzel and Kuharchek, respectively. The Generals weren’t done, though, even with two outs and nobody on base.
Instead, Smith rejuvenated the rally with a single and Johnson followed with another to advance Smith to third. Johnson then stole second and Yunker came through with a critical two-run single to give Kuharchek and the Generals some key added cushion.
Keyser finished the game 3-for-4, Hartzel batted 2-for-4, Smith went 2-for-3 and Yunker 1-for-3.