By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
LIBERTY CENTER (May 5, 2025) – “Do not tell me, it can’t be done” – Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous line from “Pearl Harbor”.
Way back in March, the experts picked Evergreen to finish either sixth or seventh in the chase for the NWOAL baseball crown. Those experts are now looking for employment in places like Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and the upper stretches of the Yukon.
That’s because thanks to the Vikings 5-1 triumph over Liberty Center, Evergreen claimed their first league title in 48 years, going back to the days of the Northern Border League.
In the ‘70s, Evergreen was a dominant force winning four titles in five years in that league which consisted of Archbold, Delta, Liberty Center, Montpelier, Patrick Henry, Swanton and Wauseon.
“I’m still letting it sink in a little bit,” first year Viking coach Chris Owens said. “When Coach (Terry) McCormick met with these boys back in October, and through the winter workouts, we knew we weren’t a seventh place team. We didn’t have a lot coming back but we had a lot of heart.”
“We knew the kids would have to buy into what we were doing and slowly they are starting to believe and believe in themselves and that’s the great thing about baseball. Once you get a little momentum going and you get all 13 kids playing for each other, you are hard to stop.”
As far as the league clinching title, which the Vikings shared with Archbold, the heroes were many and came from all the way through the lineup against the Tigers.
The top of the Evergreen lineup got things going right away, scoring twice in the opening inning.
Colton Robertson was plunked by a pitch, then stole second and third. Layne Vance laid down a bunt he beat out, with Robertson holding third.
Vance took second on a defensive indifference, then both runners moved up on Kaden Kreinbrink’s wild pitch. Kreinbrink’s balk brought home a second run for a 2-0 Viking lead.
The Tigers cut that in half in the bottom of the inning. Viking starter Troy Manz walked three LC hitters around two outs, then gave up a base hit to Will Fitzenreiter.
One run was scored on the hit, but the relay from Austin Burghardt, to Vance, to Sean Rafferty was in plenty of time to shoot down a second run.
The Tigers threatened again in the second, getting a pair of runners on base via a walk and hit batter, but again Manz escaped when he stepped off in a first and third play, fired to Chris Shrader who chased down the Tiger runner before the runner from third could score.
Sophomore Nolan Hudik relieved Manz in the third and again the Tigers threatened on back-to-back one out singles by Kreinbrink and Tyler Leu.
And one more time the Vikings got out of trouble when Manz turned Mason Smith’s grounder into a tag-em-out, throw-em-out double play to keep the score 2-1.
“Kudos to Coach McCormick, he is kind of the defensive specialist,” Owens expressed. “If you’ve seen all the games we played in the league this year, games just like this, our defense kept us in long enough to find a way to win.”
“You can’t win without good defense and especially when you get your pitchers throwing strikes it makes the other team hit the ball and we know we can make plays.”
“It’s just kids putting in work, kids staying after practice after they have been there for three hours and ask for more, they say ‘coach hit me another one’, and this is when it pays off.”
That twin-killing began a streak of 14 up and 14 down by Hudik and Vance the rest of the night.
Finally in the fifth, Evergreen put some distance on the board. Vance beat out an infield hit with one down, and one out later, Shrader drew a walk.
Designated hitter Blake Boucher then lined a two-out, two-strike single to right center to score one run. Manz also walked, an at-bat where a wild pitch brought home a second run of the inning.
Burghardt then lined a double into the left field corner to plate the third tally of the inning and make it 5-1.
Those runs proved to be more than enough to the Vikings the rest of the way. “Those kids put in as much work as anybody,” Owens said of Boucher and Burghardt.
“I know Blake has been in at 6am when he finds someone to let him in after he had a bad day and he is that early trying to get more swings.”
“Austin is just a resilient kid. I don’t know if I have ever seen anything negative out of him, he just keeps working and working and working.”
“Again, hard work as often as you’ll fail, you are going to fail seven out of 10 times, so you just have to be ready when you get your pitch, and he was a couple times tonight.”
Hudik picked up the win, giving up two hits and nary a base-on-balls, in three innings of relief. Vance got the two-inning save, mowing down six straight hitters, including two of the three in the seventh on called strike three, to put the game on ice.
EHS 200 030 0 – 5 7 0
LCHS 100 000 0 – 1 3 0
Records: EHS 9-6, 6-1 NWOAL; LCHS 4-9, 0-7 NWOAL
WINNING PITCHER: Hudik (3 innings, 2 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts) Other: Manz, Vance
LOSING PITCHER: Kreinbrink (3 innings, 2 hits, 2runs, 2 earned, 3 walks, 4 strikeouts) Other: Light, Murdock, Tallent
LEADING HITTERS: (Evergreen) Burghardt – double, RBI; Vance – 3 singles, 2 runs; (Liberty Center) Fitzenreiter – single, RBI