The Goshen Warriors have gone to the sectional finals in each of the past two seasons only to come up short. They hope to reverse that trend this season.

The Goshen Warriors have gone to the sectional finals in each of the past two seasons only to come up short. They hope to reverse that trend this season.
By Chris Chaney
Sun staff

For the first time since 1979-80, an update to the baseball conference championship banner that hangs in the Goshen High School gymnasium is needed.

The Warriors, winners of 15 of their last 16 games of the season, went 9-1 in the Southern Buckeye Conference – American Division to edge runners-up Amelia by two games and third-place Batavia by three games.

“Every year, as we try to get the guys ready for the upcoming season, we try to outline goals that we have as a team and one thing that has been elusive to Goshen has been a league title,” head coach Mark Reed said. “You go into the gymnasium and look at the banner and see that number — 1979 — and it was one of those things that we had in the back of our mind that we wanted to go out and accomplish something that hasn’t been done in a while.

“From day one, we preached a lot team stuff and trying to accomplish goals together, getting away some of that individual mentality.”

Reed accredited the success of the history-making season to a group of guys who bought into a strong senior class that was willing to put aside individual glory for the betterment of the team.

“We’ve got great senior leadership from Jesse Peters as well as Kyle Decker,” Reed said of his ace and starting middle infielder. “They both did a really good job of getting the team to gel together. Luckily, we rattled off some big wins early and that momentum kind of carried us forward.”

That momentum manifested itself in a 14-game winning streak that led into the May 3 sectional tournament draw meeting at which Goshen was awarded the top seed in Division II.

Given the nature of the draw process, the Warriors put themselves on the top line first and let the other teams steer clear of them.

“Getting the No. 1 seed hasn’t been done (at Goshen) in 15 or 20 years, so it put us in a different position,” Reed explained. “We go on to the bracket first instead of choosing where we want to go; it’s who wants to come to us.

“We noticed that a lot of teams who had played us and knew what we were capable of went to a different bracket out of respect for what we had done.

“We’re very happy with the draw that we got. Obviously, there are a lot of very good teams with Talawanda and Taylor and Indian Hill, but at this point in time, we’re very confident in the way that we’re playing and feel as though we’re going to be very tough to beat.”

Part of the reason that Reed feels so strongly about another postseason run is the fact that Goshen lost to Little Miami, 8-3, on May 6, interestingly enough.

“When we rattled off the 14 straight wins, it did get to a point where we were getting a little too confident,” Reed said. “I always preach confidence to my guys, but it does get to a point where we do need to be grounded and get a little bit of a reality check.

“When we did finally lose to Little Miami, we were upset, but everything is a learning experience and that’s how we ended up treating it. So, honestly, I think that was a phenomenal thing for us because it recharged our batteries, so to speak, and I think our motivation has been amped up that much more to go on another winning streak.”

The Warriors started their latest winning streak the day following that loss to Little Miami, toppling Blanchester on the road, 13-8.

Now, the task at hand becomes extending their season as long as possible. Given the Warriors close calls in recent years, Reed and his squad are hoping to update a few more banners by the time school opens up next fall.

“For the past two years, we’ve had two really good runs in the state tournament, making back-to-back trips to the sectional finals only to lose,” Reed said. “We have a lot of guys who were on those teams and it got to the point where we’ve been there before, but we can’t quite get over that hump, so what do we have to do differently?

“I think it instilled more hard work and motivation within the boys and became one of those things that we want to make sure we not only get (to the sectional final) again, but this time we want to win it and continue on further as we go.

“Our past success has helped lead us to this point and especially after us finally knocking down the door to the league title, I think it shows us that we’re a pretty darn good team and anything’s possible at this point.”

Goshen opens up sectional tournament play on Thursday, May 14 against the winner of Talawanda and Taft. First pitch will be at 5 p.m.