Milan Edison gets three runs in the eighth to defeat Roger Bacon 3-0 in OHSAA baseball Division 3 state semifinals
AKRON, Ohio – When Milan Edison needed someone to step up in the OHSAA Division III state semifinal game against Roger Bacon on Thursday night, Bryce Michaelis took the role and helped the Chargers take a 3-0 win to advance to the state championship game.
The senior drove in a run in the top of the eighth inning with a bases-loaded single through the left side to break a scoreless tie.
“We had the bases loaded and I had to do a job,” Michaelis said.
The Chargers added two more runs in the inning to take a 3-0 lead and then Ben Bates came on in relief of starting pitcher Thomas Simon and shut the door on the Spartans.
The game may not have even gone to extra innings if it wasn’t for Michaelis.
Roger Bacon had runners on second and third in the bottom of the sixth inning and just one out when Ty Brenner hit a fly ball to shallow center and Michaelis came in to make the catch.
Despite the depth of the ball, Roger Bacon tried to score the runner from third. Michaelis came up firing to catcher Dominic Dymond, who caught the ball and applied the tag to end the inning.
“That was a big throw,” Edison coach Sean Hoover said. “It was a good test on their part, but he put it right on the money. He had one a few games ago that was kind of shallow like that, and he threw it wide left, so we worked on that.”
Simon threw seven innings of shutout baseball for the Chargers, allowing just two hits and striking out 10.
“I can’t say enough about what he did,” Hoover said. “He came out and pounded the zone from the first pitch. He buckled down and got the strikeouts or made the big pitches when he needed to.”
Worried about the nerves, Simon exchanged text messages with his dad throughout the day, and his father gave him the advice he needed to hear.
“I was texting with my dad a lot before the game,” Simon said. “He said you just have to believe. So I just went out there and stayed confident and got it done.”
On the other side of the diamond, Jake Tschida went 5.2 innings for Roger Bacon and allowed no runs on just two hits and struck out 12, but he walked six hitters. He was pulled in the sixth inning at 116 pitches.
As for Simon, he has one game left to play for the Chargers, but this was the last time the senior would ever step on the mound in his high school career.
“It’s incredible,” Simon said. “Playing with the fan base like we have in a stadium like this under the lights, I think that’s the best way I could have gone out.”
