RBI HIT … Evergreen’s John Herdman brings home a run with a single in the fourth inning.
(PHOTOS BY JACOB KESSLER / THE VILLAGE REPORTER)
COMPLETE GAME … Evergreen hurler Nolan Hudik fires a pitch in Wednesday’s regional semifinal win over Colonel Crawford. Hudik went the distance for the Vikings allowing five hits with six strikeouts.
By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
HAMLER (June 4, 2025) – A wise sports guru once said…big game players make big plays in big games. The fall before last, John Herdman made huge plays defensively during Evergreen’s run to a district soccer title.
Current Viking catcher and vocal, as well as cerebral leader, Sean Rafferty, was on that team as well. Troy Manz, along with Herdman started on a Viking basketball team that reached a district title game this past winter.
That high level game experience from all three played a key role in a Division VI regional semifinal in baseball, and sophomore right-hander Nolan Hudik did what Nolan Hudik has been doing the whole tournament – throwing another shutout, as the Vikings blanked Colonel Crawford, 6-0, to advance to the regional championship game at Patrick Henry.
Evergreen is now 15-10 on the season, winning their last four games by a total of 35-6, all in the OHSAA Division VI tournament.
“It’s been our MO all year,” Viking coach Chris Owens commented on the mix of throwing strikes, solid defense and scoring with two out.
“We wait for our opportunities and when opportunities come we take advantage of them. That’s a good team in Colonel Crawford; they have been playing good defense all year.”
“We just kept hitting the ball hard and they found holes and obviously you can’t say enough about Nolan Hudik. Defensively, that’s what we pride ourselves on. This was probably one of our better defensive games of the season.”
“I think this is amazing for the fans, the community, obviously for the kids, the players. They are the ones who put the hard work in, the parents have supported us all year. The community has supported us all year. It’s a great feeling for the community.”
Colonel Crawford’s Van Wintersteller and Hudik were locked in a 0-0 tie through the first two innings, giving up just one hit between the two of them.
That changed in the top of the third. Hudik reached on an error and stole second. He then went to third on a ground out and then came home on Layne Vance’s bad-hop single to short to give Evergreen a 1-0 lead.
The Eagles’ Deagan Moore reached on a walk in the third, but when the 25 for 25 base stealer during the season tried to swipe second, Rafferty blew him away to end the inning and basically squashed the Eagles’ running game.
Energized by the boost in momentum, the Vikings added on in the fourth with Manz and Herdman leading the way.
With one down, Manz doubled up the left-center field gap and raced home on Herdman’s single to right.
Austin Burghardt followed with a single to put runners on first and second, and when Moore had trouble locating a wild pitch, Herdman forced the issue with a big round at third.
Moore’s flip toward Wintersteller covering the plate was wide and high allowing Herdman to score the second run of the inning and give the Vikes a 3-0 lead.
Meanwhile, Hudik was receiving solid defensive support, with the Vikes turning a double play after a leadoff walk in the fourth, and getting out of the inning when Colton Robertson chased down Joe Zizzo’s drive into the right-center field gap.
Hudik struck out the last two hitters to end the fifth and erased the Eagles on just eight pitches in the sixth. The Vikings gave Hudik plenty of padding in the seventh.
After Hudik was hit by a pitch, Robertson singled up the middle and Bryce Bolger drew a one out walk to load the bases.
The Eagles got a force play at the plate to keep the bases loaded with now two down, but Blake Boucher beat out an infield hit to make it 4-0 and Manz again came up big with a base hit through the left side to plate a pair of runs.
“Our first time through the lineup we were having quality at-bats, we were working pitch counts but we weren’t getting the breaks we wanted, they made a couple plays,” Owens explained.
“You could tell it was about to break. Our hitters were getting more and more confident, they were getting deep in the counts, and they would look down there (at Owens in the third base coaching box), and you knew they were good. You knew they were good.”
“They would give you that look like, ‘we’re all right here’ with two strikes. For some reason we like to be there, but that’s Viking baseball.”
Zizzo and Evan Metzger singled around a pair of outs in the bottom of the seventh, but Hudik got Gabe Stratton on called strike three for his sixth strikeout of the day to end the game.
Hudik walked two and gave up just five hits going the distance. Manz and Herdman each had a pair of hits and knocked in three runs between them to pace the Evergreen offense.
Weather permitting, Evergreen will take on Elmwood (21-8) today in the regional final, who no-hit Maria Stein Marion Local in the early semifinal game.
EHS 001 200 3 – 6 11 0
CCHS 000 000 0 – 0 5 1
Records: EHS 15-10, CCHS 13-14
WINNING PITCHER: Hudik (7 innings, 5 hits, 0 runs, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts)
LOSING PITCHER: Wintersteller (7 innings, 11 hits, 6 runs, 6 earned, 3 walks, 2 strikeouts)
LEADING HITTERS: (Evergreen) Manz – double, 2 singles, 2 RBIs; Herdman – 2 singles, RBI; (Colonel Crawford) Metzger – 2 singles