MOUNT VERNON — Nathan Hunt had a hard time describing what had just happened late Wednesday, as the dust settled (literally) on a picturesque spring night in Mount Vernon.
He looked out over the diamond, his players hugging and high-fiving and beaming with pride, and he smiled. Then, in a hushed tone that implied deep, unwavering gratitude, the Yellow Jackets’ head coach came to a conclusion:
“It’s hard not to be romantic about the game of baseball.”
It was, after all, a romantic evening. Not in the sense of Jack and Diane or Romeo and Juliet, but in regards to what occurred on South Division Street between 4:51 p.m. and 6:44 p.m.
Mount Vernon beat Ashland, 6-5, in its Ohio Cardinal Conference finale. The win on Senior Night guaranteed the Yellow Jackets (15-5, 10-2) a second-place finish in the OCC – one game behind outright champion Wooster (16-4, 11-1) and one game ahead of third-place Ashland (10-8, 9-3) – with the Division I tournament just one week away.
That’s the bottom line. But it’s what happened over the course of those seven innings Wednesday – the struggle, the fight, the selflessness and the determination – that turned Hunt sentimental afterwards.
He still couldn’t quite believe what he’d just witnessed.
“I mean, what a game,” Hunt cracked.
A back-and-forth battle
Wednesday began as a pitcher’s duel.
Mount Vernon junior Caden Rowland and Ashland sophomore Logan Fulk, two lanky right-handers with power, were nearly un-hittable through the first three innings.
Rowland went three-up, three-down through the first three frames. He struck out three of Ashland’s first nine batters, while letting his defense do the rest, forcing three three fly-outs and three ground-outs to keep the Arrows off the basepaths.
Fulk was flawless through two innings as well. But the Yellow Jackets managed to break through in the bottom of the third.
Leadoff batter Trevor Buttke singled to center field for the first hit of the night, drawing a hearty applause from the home crowd. Seniors Marcus Bradley and Owynn Gleason followed, loading the bases for sophomore Jonny Askew with no outs.
The Jackets scored their first two runs without hitting the ball. Askew was hit by a pitch, sending a runner home from third. Then, moments later, Fulk balked on the mound, bringing home another runner and making it 2-0 Mount Vernon.
Sophomore Konner Daughriety rocketed a pitch to the right field fence two batters later, scoring Askew from second and increasing the lead to 3-0.
Ashland got on the board in the fourth. Rowland hit Kamden Mowry with a pitch, and Parker Grissinger launched a single to center field that moved runners to first and third. Ethan Bunce then sent a hard-hit grounder to the shortstop, scoring Mowry from third and making it 3-1.
The Arrows took the lead in the fifth. Mowry doubled to deep right field with the bases loaded, scoring runners from second and third and tying the game. Then, with two outs, Bunce singled into center field, scoring two more runners and giving Ashland a 5-3 lead.
But Rowland didn’t fold. Just like the last inning – when he struck out Ashland’s Landon McFrederick with runners on second and third to stop the bleeding – Mount Vernon’s junior ace was able to work out of a jam.
He forced Aidan Chandler into a groundout with the bases loaded and two outs, ending the inning and limiting the damage. The Jackets would trail 5-3 heading into the bottom of the fifth.
“He’s a bulldog. …” Hunt said of Rowland. “The thing with Caden is, our guys play with confidence when Caden’s pitching, because they know he’s not a big strikeout guy. They’re gonna have to field the baseball. They’re gonna have to do their part.”
This proved true on the final play of the fifth. Gleason, who started at shortstop, scooped Chandler’s grounder on the run and fired to fellow senior Beau Bridges at first, who snagged the ball off the dirt and kept his foot on the bag in order to record the out.
“They can’t just sit back and kind of watch, because he’s not a strikeout guy,” Hunt continued. “So to be able to kind of be around the zone most of the time is his M.O. And you see him when he comes off the mound, confidence is pouring out of him.”
The conversation
This confidence would only take Rowland so far, however. Ashland had begun to figure him out, and the Jackets would now need lights-out defense the rest of the way in order to catch up.
That’s when the conversation happened.
According to Hunt, Bradley approached Rowland in the dugout in-between innings. The senior, who had started the game in left field, had already been instructed to warm up in the bullpen heading into the sixth. But he wanted to take it a step further – and speak directly with Rowland about what should be done moving forward.
“Those two, junior and senior, had a conversation,” Hunt said. “(Bradley) said, ‘Look, I think they’re timing you up.’ And Caden kind of swallowed his ego, swallowed his pride and said, ‘Hey, I believe in you.'”
When the sixth inning began, Bradley jogged to the mound. Hunt, who didn’t learn of the dugout conversation until later, said he was shocked. But he was also proud.
“I told him to go get a ‘pen … go get loose, go get ready to go, in case something happens with Caden where he got in trouble. And next thing I know, there he is,” Hunt recalled with a laugh.
“I said, ‘Is everything OK?’ And he said, ‘Coach, I think I want to finish this.'”
With Rowland and Hunt’s approval, Bradley took over to begin the sixth. And he dominated.
The senior allowed just two hits over the game’s final two innings – both singles – and forced two ground-ball double plays. He and the Mount Vernon defense kept Ashland off the scoreboard, giving the offense one final shot to tie it – or win it – in the bottom of the seventh.
And if Beau Bridges had any say, Mount Vernon would choose the latter.
The hit
The inning began with two consecutive walks.
Fulk, nearing seven innings of work in the 80-degree heat, began to lose control around the strike zone. And Mount Vernon’s senior leaders took advantage. Bradley walked to lead off the inning, and Gleason followed, putting two runners on-base with no outs.
The Arrows brought in a new pitcher – freshman Alex Grissinger – to try to stop the bleeding. But it would not work.
Askew bunted down the third-base line moments later, but the throw to first missed the mark, spurting to the fence as the sophomore reached the bag. This brought both runners home, and it allowed Askew, one of Mount Vernon’s top athletes, to reach third safely after turning on the jets.
The game was now tied, 5-5, with a runner on third and no outs.
Ashland chose to intentionally walk Mount Vernon’s next two batters, Rowland and Daughriety. That meant Bridges, one of four seniors (alongside Bradley, Gleason and second baseman Nolan Belcher), would have an opportunity to send the Yellow Jackets home victorious, with the bases loaded and no outs.
And with a crowd of supporters standing behind him, he’d do just that.
Bridges wasted little time before rocketing a ball down the third-base line. When it passed the Ashland infield, Askew charged home, a wide grin stretched across his face as reality came crashing in.
Mount Vernon had done it. Down 5-3 in the bottom of the seventh, the Yellow Jackets had come back and won it – with a senior recording the walk-off hit in his final OCC home game.
“The emotions were high,” Bridges said afterwards, his face covered in dust and sweat. “I was struggling all game – I was struggling all series – and getting that hit felt good.
“I knew as soon as they walked Caden, they were gonna walk Konner. I knew they were gonna try to get me, and I knew I could get a hit.”
The moments after Bridges’ hit were picturesque – the Mount Vernon dugout storming the field and bombarding the senior near first base, where he’d ended up after all the commotion.
Hunt called the last inning “madness,” and the ending left him speechless.
“Just the fight at the end. Not even our best game today – you know, that’s a sophomore (Fulk) who did a nice job – but just the continued fight to just kind of find a way,” said Hunt, when asked about what impressed him the most.
“That was our thing was just, ‘Find a way to get it to the next guy.’ And fortunately, we were able to get it to the next guy with no outs and the winning run on third.”
Mount Vernon and Ashland both entered Wednesday with the opportunity to win a share of the OCC title. Wooster was scheduled to play West Holmes the same night, and if the Knights would have pulled off the upset, the winner of Mount Vernon-Ashland would have claimed a share of the championship.
But it wasn’t in the cards. Wooster blew past West Holmes, 11-1, clinching its second straight outright conference title.
This news came over the intercom in between the sixth and seventh innings on Wednesday in Mount Vernon. Both teams knew, heading into the final frame, that a championship was no longer on the line. They were playing for second – admirable, sure, but not nearly as motivating.
That didn’t matter to Hunt’s club.
“These guys could have said, ‘Alright, let’s get ready for (the tournament),'” Hunt said. “Or, ‘Let’s go walk these guys off.'”
The Yellow Jackets chose the latter.
“The Nick Saban (saying), ‘Be where your feet are’ has kind of been a mantra of ours,” Hunt explained, grinning as he glanced toward the dugout. “We’re big quote people around here.”
Looking ahead
Wednesday was an emotional day for Hunt.
This senior class was his first, having started here four years ago. He got to see them learn and develop, on a near-daily basis, from start to finish.
And Hunt said he couldn’t be prouder of the men they’ve become.
“They’re the first class that’s been with me for four years. They had the expectations – they know what I expect. …” he said.
“The seniors have done everything I’ve asked them to do, and every guy in our program has a shirt that says ‘Team 73′ on the back. And that means that this is the 73rd team, and everything that happens (later) – 74, 75, 76 – it falls on those seniors’ shoulders.
“If you want to build a culture, it’s gonna start every year, and these guys have done everything I’ve asked of them.”
That culture was on full display Wednesday, Hunt said, when Rowland agreed to let Bradley take the hill for the sixth and seventh innings.
“Marcus comes in and says, ‘Look, I wanna shut this door.’ And as a coach, when you have someone that’s saying, ‘Give me the rock,’ it’s unlike anything else,” Hunt said. “The confidence that poured from him, that then pours into the dugout, it’s unbelievable.”
The moment showed initiative from Bradley, Hunt said, but it also showed humility from Rowland, who willingly sacrificed playing time for the betterment of the team.
“That’s the selflessness of our team, is saying, ‘Next guy’s got it. I trust him,'” Hunt said. “That’s where I think our culture is turning to, is just the whole team aspect of it. It’s kind of a beautiful thing to watch.”
Mount Vernon’s culture manifested Wednesday in other ways as well. Timely hitting, opportunistic base-running and solid defense all contributed to another nip-and-tuck OCC win.
“At the end of the day … I want team baseball,” Hunt said. “I want guys to be excited about sac bunts. I want guys to be excited about manufacturing a run – and on top of that, being a good teammate, doing all those things.
“But I think when it comes to the selflessness of our team, it has created a culture and a chemistry that I haven’t seen yet.”
Mount Vernon has shown improvement under Hunt in recent years.
After finishing third in the OCC last season, the Yellow Jackets placed second this spring, going toe-to-toe with regional power Wooster for the title. They were ranked 16th in the state in Division I in late April, having swept Madison and West Holmes in conference play.
Mount Vernon beat Wooster for the first time in Hunt’s tenure on April 7, and held serve with the Generals atop the OCC standings until Tuesday, when they fell to Ashland on the road, 3-1.
In the end, the Jackets fell one win short of their first conference title since 2017. But Bridges said he’s proud of this group and all it has accomplished.
“It’s one of the best seasons I’ve ever had in the OCC,” said Bridges, who played all four years and now starts at first base. “You know, we’re a great team. It sucks that we lost yesterday – we really wanted that game – and second’s terrible, we’d hate to be second.
“But we fought hard and we’ve played a great season so far.”
The Jackets will play twice more – at home against Jonathan Alder on Thursday and at Heath on Saturday – before beginning tournament play. They’re seeded 10th in the Division I Central District, and will host the winner of 20-seed Dublin Jerome vs. 40-seed Chillicothe next Wednesday.
Hunt believes his team’s experience in the OCC this spring will prepare it for the postseason. Nearly every night was a battle in the conference, with two months of competition coming down to one evening, when the champion was determined.
“With the conference being what it was this year, every single game was competitive,” Hunt said. “Obviously you wanna go conference and then follow it up with the tournament, but I think every conference game that we had kind of felt like that tournament atmosphere. And because of that … it just gets you ready for that tournament. …
“I think (from) these guys’ standpoint, now that conference is over, that’s something for them to think about. And what a time to get hot – now’s that time.”
