Sun staff
The second season hasn’t been kind to Clermont County baseball teams as upsets abounded in the early-going of the sectional tournament. Now, as the statewide field narrows, the Williamsburg Wildcats in Division III will be the only area team with the opportunity to march upstate.
The only local team to even reach a sectional final game, the Wildcats fought past Southern Buckeye Conference rivals Clermont Northeastern, 5-3, on Wednesday, May 13 to earn their berth in May 20’s sectional final against top-seeded Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy.
Ironically enough, the game that spurred the Wildcats most recent run was a 4-1 loss to Batavia in the regular-season finale.
“We won nine in a row in the run up to that Batavia game, but it was probably a good thing to take that loss,” Burg head coach Shannon Smith said. “It kind of brought us back down to Earth a little bit, got us refocused and reenergized and let us know what we had to do to get it done in the tournament.”
The sectional title game was scheduled to be contested on Wednesday, May 20 with the result unavailable at press time.
Elsewhere in Division III, (8) Bethel-Tate reached the sectional semifinal thanks to a 6-4 win over (9) East Clinton on May 12. Back in action the next day against the No. 3 seed, Blanchester, the Tiger bats fell silent ending Bethel’s season in a 7-0 loss.
Perhaps the most perplexing loss of the postseason as it pertains to Clermont County was top-seeded Goshen’s loss in their first game of the Division II sectional tournament to No. 9 Talawanda, 1-0, on May 14.
A pitcher’s duel throughout, Goshen ace Jesse Peters was saddled with his only loss of the season despite striking out 10 Braves batters. The Warriors offense simply couldn’t get anything going, getting shut out for the first time all season.
They ended the year 16-4.
Batavia and New Richmond both had their seasons snuffed out by No. 6 seed Wyoming. The Cowboys took down No. 4 Batavia in the first round, 4-3 on May 12, and then No. 3 seed New Richmond, 3-2 on May 14.
Although slightly less shocking than Goshen’s early exit, two of the other biggest surprises came in Division I where Eastern Cincinnati Conference stalwarts Milford and Glen Este were ousted prior to sectional final appearances.
For the Eagles, coming off of their fourth consecutive conference title and a district tournament appearance a year ago, Tom Kilgore’s group were upset in the second round of the sectional tournament by No. 18 seed Hamilton.
Milford dismantled (33) Withrow in the first round, 16-0 in five innings, but the Big Blue took it to the Eagles in the sectional semifinal, winning 7-1, and ending the red and white’s season unceremoniously.
Similarly, Glen Este, runners-up in the ECC to Milford, was upset in the early rounds of the sectional tournament by higher seed for the second consecutive campaign. Last year, the Trojans were bounced in the first round by No. 20 Little Miami when GE was seeded eighth.
This year, after winning their first-round game over Mount Healthy, 17-0 in five innings, the Trojans fell 8-4 to No. 11 seed Loveland.
Amelia, also playing in DI, lost in the first round to Walnut Hills, 4-3. The Barons finished the season 15-10 and were runners up in the SBC-American.
Finally, in Division IV, the Felicity-Franklin Cardinals saw their season come to an end on May 11 at the hands of Georgetown, 10-0 in five innings.
Complete sectional tournament brackets can be found on swdab.org.