Sun staff
Five Clermont County baseball teams will be playing for sectional titles this week as the state tournament advances into the district rounds next week with state title hopes on the line as the calendar changes to June.
The Milford Eagles, the lone Division I team from the area still playing, has seen their Cincinnati 2 sectional play out to the exact matchup they expected when head coach Tom Kilgore went to the seed meeting on May 4.
“We went in a bracket that we believe we have a chance to win two games and get to a sectional final rematch with Anderson,” Kilgore said prior to tournament play. “But there were number of good teams hopped in with us.
“Our first-round opponent Sycamore is a really good team and I expect them to give us some fits. That being said, I think we have three potential matchups that we can win also (playing the winner of Lebanon and Colerain).”
Kilgore’s squad beat Sycamore 7-1 and after some rainouts, took care of business against No. 21-seed Colerain on Saturday, May 17.
The Eagles will have their third game of the season against Eastern Cincinnati Conference rivals Anderson on Thursday, May 22 at 5 p.m. at Kings High School.
In Division II, another conference rematch will determine a sectional champion, this one from the Southern Buckeye Conference.
Top-seeded New Richmond made their way through the lower portion of the Cincinnati sectional beating No. 13 Taft (6-2) and No. 8 Norwood (7-0).
New Richmond head coach Brian Benzinger won his 300th career game with the Norwood victory.
New Richmond’s reward is a third matchup with their American Division runners-up, Goshen.
The Warriors, who have both beaten and lost to the Lions this year by identical scores of 1-0, beat No. 9 Talawanda (7-1) and upset No. 3 Batavia (12-2) to advance to the sectional title.
The two SBC heavyweights will decide the sectional championship on Thursday, May 22 at 5 p.m. at Anderson.
Two more SBC teams competed for sectional finals in Division III, albeit not against one another. Sixth-seeded Clermont Northeastern took advantage of a good draw to hand No. 8-seed Bethel-Tate their final defeat of the season, 4-0. The Rockets’ win put the team into the sectional final for the fourth consecutive season. They’ve won their sectional in each of the last three years.
The Rockets played the game, weather permitting, on Wednesday, May 21 at Summit Country Day. The result was not available at the time this edition went to print.
On the opposite side of the DIII Cincinnati East sectional, Williamsburg played the winner of No. 2 Clinton Massie and No. 4 Madeira on Wednesday, May 21 as well. However, the Wildcats had to upset two higher seeded teams to reach their sectional final.
The seventh-seeded Williamsburg squad took down No. 5 Mariemont in the first round and then No. 3 Blanchester in the second to earn their right to play for a sectional crown.
Full brackets, game times and weather updates are available on the Southwest Ohio District Athletic Board website at swdab.org and final scores from games can be found on The Clermont Sun sports Twitter page at @ClerSunSports.