TIFFIN -- It may have taken two days ... but it was well worth the wait.
No. 1-ranked Defiance punched its ticket to the state baseball tournament for the fourth time in school history after outlasting Granville 4-0 in the Division II regional championship on Saturday at Tiffin's Heminger Field. The game, which was postponed due to weather on Friday with Defiance leading 3-0 after 41⁄2 innings, was completed early Saturday afternoon.
After senior lefty Weston Rivers had held the Blue Aces (22-7) scoreless on Friday, senior righty Rob Zeigler came back and completed the shutout on one day's rest for the Bulldogs (29-1).
"Weston gave us four shutout innings, that's what he's done all season long, and then Robbie came in on one day's rest, and he threw as well as he has all season," stated Defiance mentor Tom Held on how his two senior aces held a Granville team hitting .330 on the year to just four hits. "When you've got a 1-2 like those two ... what can you say?"
Granville coach Vince Ghiloni knew his team had been shut down by two very good pitchers.
"We didn't hit the ball, that's the story of the game for us," said Ghiloni. "Those two (Rivers and Zeigler) are just monsters. We've seen some good pitchers this year and have managed to hit, but that didn't happen against them. It was their pitchers against our hitters and they were better. They say the best team doesn't always win, in this case the better team won this game."
Both Rivers and Zeigler were pleased to help lead DHS back to state for the first time since 2010.
"I didn't know too much about Granville coming in, but I did know they were a good hitting team," said Rivers, who finished with four Ks and no walks. "I just went out and tried to throw strikes, the knuckleball wasn't working that well (conditions were very windy on Friday), so I turned to my two-seamer (fastball) and that worked well. After last year (Defiance lost to Wapakoneta 6-1 in the regional finals a year ago), this is a much better feeling let me tell you."
Said Zeigler: "I was the guy who pitched that game last year, so to come back this year and make the most of this second chance feels amazing. We had a sign up since last year that said 6-1 (referring to the loss), now we can celebrate this win and get ready for state."
On Friday, Defiance took an early 1-0 in the top of the first, loading the bases against Granville starter Dalton Boucher. The lefty gave up a sacrifice fly off the bat of Defiance DH Austin Yant that scored Dom Gentile, but he was able to get out of the jam without further damage.
Boucher wasn't so lucky in the top of the second when the 'Dogs took a 3-0 advantage.
With two outs, Derek Turner singled, Austin Hancock hit a ground-rule double that bounced over the fence in right-center field and Gentile walked to load the bases again. A two-run single by Rob Zeigler scored Turner and Hancock for the 3-0 Defiance lead.
"You look back at this game and we stranded nine guys in the first five innings, but Robbie's two-out hit in the second was really huge for us," said Held. "Austin's double bounced over the fence, so that kept Derek at third, so getting those two runs were very, very big."
When player resumed on Saturday, Zeigler went to work on the bump and never let the Blue Aces threaten. The righty struck out six in his three innings, while giving up one hit and no walks. The Bulldogs added their final run of the game off Granville regional semifinal winner Clay Hartness. A high fastball to Austin Hancock landed over the fence in left after Hancock gave it a ride.
"I was ahead 2-0 in the count so I was looking for a fastball," Hancock said. "The pitch was a little high, but once I hit it, I knew I had gotten all of it."
The difference between being ahead 3-0 and 4-0 was big according to Held.
"Austin's home run really quieted them down," Held said. "With a 3-0 lead, anything can happen. An error, a walk, somebody turns on one and all of a sudden it's a tie game. When Austin's home run made it 4-0, you could start to feel the momentum was on our side. That geared Robbie up even more, he hit 93 on the gun today. But, Austin has just had an unbelievable tournament."
The Blue Aces went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the seventh, with Zeigler striking out Jimmy Ballanger for the final out, sparking the celebration for the Bulldogs.
"I didn't know what to do after that third out, I've never really been involved in winning a game like this," said Defiance senior catcher Joe Keween. "I actually turned around and shook the umpires hand before I saw everyone running out of the dugout. Once I ran out there, I got really pumped up and there were so many things running through my head. This feeling is unbelievable."
Defiance advances to the D-II Final Four to face Akron Hoban on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Huntington Park, home of the Columbus Clippers. Defiance won the D-I state championship in 1992, while also making it to state in D-II in 2002 and in 2010.
"We're going to celebrate this one for the next couple of days (Saturday and today) and then get back to work," concluded Held. "It's going to be nice going to graduation parties coming off a win, rather than a loss like we experienced last year. These guys earned it, but there's more work to do."
Defiance 120 001 0 - 4 8 1
Granville 000 000 0 - 0 4 0
Records: Defiance 29-1, Granville 22-7.
Winning pitcher: Weston Rivers (4 innings, 0 runs, 3 hits, 4 strikeouts, 0 walks). Other: Rob Zeigler.
Losing pitcher: Dalton Boucher (5 innings, 3 runs, 6 hits, 8 strikeouts, 5 walks). Other: Clay Hartness.
Leading hitters: (Defiance, 8 hits) - Austin Hancock double, home run; Joe Gentile double; Adam Schaffer 2 singles. (Granville, 4 hits) - Alex Marcum double.