{"id":118895,"date":"2019-06-06T04:38:17","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T09:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=118895"},"modified":"2019-06-06T04:39:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-06T09:39:00","slug":"cougars-prepping-for-chaminade-julienne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2019\/06\/06\/cougars-prepping-for-chaminade-julienne\/","title":{"rendered":"Cougars prepping for Chaminade Julienne"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been a busy week for Van Wert\u2019s recording setting baseball team, as the Cougars navigate uncharted waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a school record 27 wins against just two losses and the program\u2019s first ever regional championship in hand, Van Wert is preparing for Saturday\u2019s Division II state semifinals against defending state champion and current poll champion Dayton Chaminade Julienne. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Van Wert baseball coach Charlie Witten.<\/strong> Bob Barnes\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In many ways, it\u2019s been a dream season for the Western Buckeye League co-champion Cougars but while looking back, Witten admitted he wasn\u2019t sure if his team would advance to the state semifinals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are a lot of good teams especially in our district and region,\u201d Witten said. \u201cWe knew a goal of a state tournament would be an uber goal, a real high goal to attain. Our goals were a WBL championship and a district championship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advancing to the state level brings extra attention, but veteran coach Charlie Witten said his team has been focused this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one thing we addressed on Monday, the extra attention and the fact that we don\u2019t have school,\u201d Witten explained. We\u2019re used to going to school then playing baseball. It\u2019s different, but it\u2019s different for everybody, and I think this group has kept things in perspective and understands what\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert and Chaminade Julienne (25-2) has some similarities in terms of winning streaks \u2013 the Cougars have won 19 consecutive games and the Eagles have won 21 straight \u2013 and personnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have several real good pitchers,\u201d Witten said. \u201cOne has a little more control and the second guy is a little faster than the first, so we\u2019ll definitely see a real good pitcher, similar to what we saw in the Craft kid from Bowling Green.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs I watched him (Nick Wissman) pitch against Granville, I thought we can hit him. We need to take the right approach and do things the right way to to get to him. They\u2019re very sound defensively and they put the ball in play very well offensively. They\u2019re very patient at the plate as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wissman, who is projected to start Saturday\u2019s game is 10-0 with an ERA of 0.93. Sebastian Gongora is 8-0 and sports an ERA of 1.17. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Center fielder Andrew Simones leads Chaminade Julienne with a .440 batting average, 22 RBIs and 28 runs scored. Catcher Jacob Hieatt is hitting .429 with 14 RBIs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert will counter with Lawson Blackmore, who\u2019s 6-1 with an ERA of 1.50. Should the Cougars advance to Sunday\u2019s state championship game, Owen Treece (9-0, 1.14 ERA) would likely get the start. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the plate, Jalen McCracken continues to lead the Cougars with a .444 batting average, while Hayden Maples is the team leader in RBIs (27), followed closely by Nathan Temple and Parker Conrad (26).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday\u2019s game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at Canal Park in Akron. The winner will face Gates Mills Gilmour Academy or St. Clairsville for the Division II state championship at 4 p.m. on Sunday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

State tournament baseball will air live on WERT 1220AM\/104.3FM and can be streamed through www.thevwindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor It\u2019s been a busy week for Van Wert\u2019s recording setting baseball team, as the Cougars navigate uncharted waters. With a school record 27 wins against just two losses and the program\u2019s first ever regional championship in hand, Van Wert is preparing for Saturday\u2019s Division II state semifinals against defending state champion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 16:31:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}