{"id":181413,"date":"2024-07-16T03:54:17","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T08:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=181413"},"modified":"2024-07-16T03:54:52","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T08:54:52","slug":"random-thoughts-baseball-memories-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2024\/07\/16\/random-thoughts-baseball-memories-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: ACME, memories, more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

This installment of Random Thoughts centers around ACME baseball, the return of a popular game, the MLB draft and several memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACME<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations to Van Wert for an incredible run to the state ACME Baseball finals. Along the way, Cougar pitchers tossed back-to-back no-hitters and Monday night’s championship game was tied 0-0 after seven innings. Minster scored three runs in the top of the eighth and won the state title 3-0. It still doesn’t dimish what the Cougars were able to accomplish this season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s in the game<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you a fan of the NCAA Football video game by EA Sports, this is a happy week for you. After an 11-year hiatus the game is back. It\u2019s launch is this week and judging by reaction online, football video gamers are overjoyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MLB draft<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is astounding to me. In all the years of the Major League Baseball draft, a second baseman had never been taken No. 1 overall until this past Sunday, when the Cleveland Guardians selected Travis Bazanna from Oregon St. He was quite the hitter in college and hopefully that success continues at the pro level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s even more astounding to me is the fact until this Sunday, Cleveland never had the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. Some of you may remember the former Indians were, to put it gently, bad for a number of years. I realize the MLB draft is different than the NFL draft but it\u2019s still amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memories<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the 2024 high school football season rapidly approaching, I\u2019ve been thinking about some of the top games I\u2019ve covered. Here they are in no particular order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2009<\/strong> Division VI state championship game, Norwalk St. Paul vs. Delphos St. John\u2019s.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After stopping the heavily favored Blue Jays on downs just two yards from the end zone, the Flyers went 98 in yards in 12 plays and scored on a one yard keeper with five seconds left on fourth and one by quarterback Eric Schwieterman, giving St. Paul a stunning 24-21 win. The Flyers outgained the Blue Jays 430-176 on that cold December day in Massillon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2020 Division IV state championsh<\/strong>ip game, Van Wert vs. Lake Catholic<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars trailed 21-7 just over three minutes into the third quarter but scored twice in the final 2:30 to stun Lake Catholic 31-28. Owen Treece\u2019s 15 yard touchdown pass to Nate Jackson tied the game 28-28, then Damon McCracken\u2019s 25 yard field goal with nine seconds left capped off a seven play, 47-yard drive and gave Van Wert its first ever OHSAA football championship. Treece accounted for 363 of Van Wert\u2019s 366 yards and all four touchdowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

2020 Division IV regional semifinals, Van Wert at Bellevue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars defeated the Redmen 41-22 at First National Bank Field. Van Wert raced out to a 28-0 lead over Bellevue, a team that rarely loses at home. To boot, Bellevue had only given up 78 points all season. I remember taking a lot of flak because I had picked the Redmen to win the game. I covered a lot of their games over the years and their home field advantage was tremendous. The Cougars proved me wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2018 regular season, Crestview at Spencerville<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drew Kline\u2019s 14-yard touchdown pass to Griffin Painter as time expired gave the Knights an incredible 50-49 win over the Bearcats. The two also connected on a key fourth down pass on the winning drive. Spencerville won the numbers battle, outgaining Crestview 538-305, but the Knights won the scoreboard battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2013 Division III regional quarterfinals, Norwalk vs. Tiffin Columbian<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was my alma mater\u2019s (Norwalk) first playoff appearance since the Truckers won the Class AA state championship in 1974. Norwalk traveled to Frost-Kalnow Stadium for the opening round playoff game. The two teams met during the regular season and the Tornadoes won 24-20. They also won the playoff game, 34-28 in two overtimes. In the second overtime, Columbian scored but missed the extra point. Norwalk was perfect on PATs that night and only had to score a touchdown and kick the extra point for the win. The Truckers had it second and goal from the two when the unthinkable happened. In the shotgun, the center launched the ball over everyone\u2019s head and it literally landed back at the 28 yard line. The quarterback recovered and tried to run but was quickly tackled. Two incomplete passes later, the game was over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could go on and on. Maybe sometime I\u2019ll share more if anyone is interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, if you have thoughts on any of the above subjects, feel free to email me at sports@thewindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor This installment of Random Thoughts centers around ACME baseball, the return of a popular game, the MLB draft and several memories. ACME Congratulations to Van Wert for an incredible run to the state ACME Baseball finals. Along the way, Cougar pitchers tossed back-to-back no-hitters and Monday night’s championship game was tied 0-0 […]<\/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-181413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 08:18:04","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\/181413","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=181413"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181431,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181413\/revisions\/181431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}