As it turns out, New Haven was the only area baseball team to win a district championship this spring.
Playing in the Class 1 District 10 title game Wednesday at St. Elizabeth High School, the Shamrocks held off the host school, 3-2.
“Our pitching in the three district games by Austin Madden and Garrett Schoenfeld was very good,” said New Haven Head Coach Jim Scheer. “We’re definitely hitting the ball better than we have all year. Some of the elite pitchers in the Four Rivers Conference can throw hard, have good movement and can locate the ball. The pitchers we faced in our district can’t do those things as well. We’re making more solid contact at the plate.”
New Haven (10-14) hosts Green Ridge (12-8) in a Class 1 sectional game Monday at 6 p.m.
Admission to the sectional game is $6, which is a MSHSAA mandated price. The rain date is Tuesday at 6 p.m.
St. Elizabeth
The second-seeded Shamrocks grabbed a 3-0 lead after three innings and held on for a 3-2 win over top-seeded St. Elizabeth.
Austin Madden pitched all seven innings to earn the win, his second of the district tournament. He allowed two runs on six hits with three walks and seven strikeouts.
“Austin threw the ball really well. His control was good. He’s been a little hesitant in throwing the breaking ball, but we told him he needs to throw it more and he did. He’s throwing harder than he has all year. He was poised when things got intense late in the game.”
St. Elizabeth had the bases loaded with one out in the fifth inning, but failed to score, keeping the game 3-0.
After scoring two runs in the sixth inning, St. Elizabeth had the tying run on first base in the seventh inning, but Madden retired the No. 3 hitter to end the contest.
Madden helped himself at the plate with two hits and a run. Blake Eggers and Kyle Ruediger both had RBI hits.
Ross Seitter (double), John Carey, Jake Terschluse and Garrett Schoenfeld each added one hit. John Duke and Schoenfeld both walked twice. Ruediger and Terschluse both walked once.
Calvary Lutheran
New Haven defeated third-seeded Calvary Lutheran Monday in the semifinals, 12-3.
Trailing 3-2 after four innings, the Shamrocks exploded for six runs in the fifth and four in the sixth.
“We started to hit the ball in the fifth inning,” Scheer said. “We drew a couple of walks and had some big hits.”
Schoenfeld pitched all seven innings. He allowed three runs on seven hits with no walks and four strikeouts.
The Shamrocks registered 13 hits in the contest.
Eggers was 3-4 with three RBIs and a run.
Madden, Carey, Ruediger and Seitter each added two hits.
Seitter also walked twice, scored two runs and had one RBI. Madden had four RBIs and scored a run. Ruediger scored three runs. Carey collected two RBIs.
Schoenfeld and Andrew Schwentker both had one hit. Schwentker also walked and scored a run. Schoenfeld scored a run.
Terschluse walked twice and scored two runs.
Tuscumbia
New Haven opened the district tournament with a 13-0 win in five innings over seventh-seed Tuscumbia May 11.
The Shamrocks scored three runs in the first inning, six in the third and four in the fourth.
Madden tossed a three-hit shutout over five innings. He walked two and struck out four.
New Haven collected 14 hits.
Duke, Seitter, Terschluse, Ruediger and Madden each had two hits.
Terschluse and Ruediger both added two RBIs and two runs. Ruediger also stole three bases. Madden also walked, had two RBIs and one run. Seitter and Duke both had one RBI and one run. Seitter also stole two bases.
Schoenfeld (double), Eggers (double), Schwentker and Carey each finished with one hit.
Eggers also walked, scored two runs and had one RBI. Schoenfeld had two RBIs and one run. Carey had one walk and one run. Schwentker scored twice.
Green Ridge
Green Ridge makes the trip to New Haven Monday after taking the Class 1 District 9 title with a 13-3 victory Tuesday over Leeton.
The Tigers knocked off Hermitage in the first round 3-1 and Wheatland in the semifinals, 8-5.
Madden is expected to start on the mound for the Shamrocks.
“I don’t know much about Green Ridge. They had three or four coaches at our game. They were the No. 4 seed in their district and beat the No. 1 seed Wheatland in the semifinals,” Scheer said.
“If we play clean defense, put the bat on the ball and just take care of our own business, we’ll be fine. We can’t walk people or make errors. I think we’ll put runs on the board. We just have to hold them down.”
The sectional winner advances to the Class 1 quarterfinals Wednesday, May 23, against either New Franklin or Sturgeon.
