Lake Center Christian baseball eyes bright future after regional loss to Tiffin Calvert

LOUISVILLE — A season ends and the hardest part arrives: Saying goodbye.

Fortunately for the Lake Center Christian High School baseball team, it's just "until we meet again."

The senior-less Tigers led for four innings Thursday but ultimately fell 4-2 to Tiffin Calvert Catholic during a well-played Division IV regional semifinal at Louisville's Andy Aljancic Field.

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Head coach Shane Byler described himself as "super proud" of his team's season, which included a 22-7 final record, its first district championship since 2009 (when Byler was a player) and its first league championship of any kind.

But he quickly transitioned from what was to what could be. Lake Center boasts a nucleus comprised of six juniors, two sophomores and two freshmen.

"If they keep doing what they're doing, there is no telling what they're capable of accomplishing," Byler said with an eye toward next year and beyond. "Let's keep digging in and work to do something really, really special."

Calvert moves on to face Warren JFK — a 7-1 winner against Dalton in Thursday's first semifinal — in Friday's 5 p.m. regional final back at Louisville. It was JFK that Lake Center split the Portage Trail Conference title with in the regular season.

The Tigers seemed poised to join their PTC brethren for Friday's final, jumping to a 2-0 lead early. Wyatt Fether's sacrifice fly scored Matt Warder in the first inning and Luke Heckert's ground ball fielder's choice scored Braidon Miller in the second.

Calvert is a 2022 state semifinalist that ranked third in the final coaches association state poll this season and carried a 28-2 record into Thursday's game. It hasn't faced a lot of deficits this season.

The Senecas' team motto is B.A.M.O. — "breathe and move on."

They went whammo in the top of the fifth.

Senior Mason Johnson, who has tied the program's single-season home run record with nine this season, picked out a first-pitch fastball from Lake Center starter Dylan Maninga and drove a two-run double to the right-center gap to tie the score at 2-2.

The big, lefty-swinging Johnson had missed a juicy fastball earlier in the game and hoped to get another shot at one.

"I was sitting fastball and he threw it and I barrelled it up," he said.

An errant throw pulled a Lake Center player off the bag two batters later, and that eventually allowed Johnson to score the go-ahead run on Blake Coleman's sacrifice fly, during which Johnson displayed some agility.

"It was a funky play," Johnson said. "I jumped out of the way so the catcher wouldn't get the tag and then I kind of crawled and just barely slapped home base."

Harry Shultz capped the fifth with an RBI single, putting Calvert up 4-2.

That was all the support Coleman needed. The sophomore right-hander, the son of head coach Matt Coleman, went the distance in 98 pitches to get the win and improve to 10-1. He scattered six hits and struck out four while walking two and hitting two batters.

"He was geared up for this game. Had some things to prove," Matt Coleman said, mentioning his son wasn't happy with his performance in a regional game last year. "We threw more off-speed than we typically do, but he threw it for strikes. I liked the way he battled."

Maninga displayed some serious guts for Lake Center. The junior right-hander endured a nasty collision while tagging out Calvert's AJ Shoemaker in the first inning and stayed down for a couple of minutes.

He eventually got up, threw a few pitches to test himself and escaped the frame with no damage after a leadoff double from Nick Palm.

Maninga ended up tossing a complete game in 103 pitches, allowing the four runs (two earned) on seven hits. He walked four, struck out four and hit a batter in falling to 10-2.

"He's a bulldog, and it's going to take a lot more than that to knock him out," Byler said, referring to the first-inning collision. "It's admirable, but no one in here was surprised. That's just what he does, man."

Lake Center wasn't the only young team on the field.

The Senecas had four freshmen in Thursday's starting lineup and played six overall. The only two seniors for Calvert are Palm and Johnson.

Asked about these two programs crossing paths again next year, Coleman smiled and said, "We would love that. I really like the way Shane coaches his team. Class act."

Reach Josh at josh.weir@cantonrep.com 

On Twitter: @jweirREP 

This article originally appeared on The Repository: OHSAA regional baseball: Lake Center Christian vs. Calvert Catholic