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| District Championships are a longtime tradition at Russia and in Shelby County |
Raider fans will be caravanning to another regional baseball tournament this week, just like they've been doing now for eight straight seasons since 2017. Baseball fundamentals are taught at a young age in Russia and the surrounding area. As a matter of fact, this year marks 27 consecutive seasons that a team from Shelby County has qualified for the regional final four. State-ranked #8 Russia (16-11) will meet #4 Mohawk (22-6) on Wednesday at 5:00 in the
Division VII Southwest Regional semifinal. Prior to that game at 2:00, Fayetteville-Perry (7-14) will play in their program's first-ever regional semifinal taking on Cedarville (16-6). For Cedarville, they get the rare treat of competing in their home town. The tournament is being hosted at the neutral site of
Yellow Jacket Field, home of Cedarville University.
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| The district puzzle for the OHSAA |
Folks from southwest Ohio might be wondering where in the Buckeye State is Mohawk from? Well, the school is located in the northwest region, just outside the town of Sycamore and nine miles south of Tiffin. That's over 100 miles from their opponent in Russia and likely a two hour thirty minute bus ride to Cedarville. The northwest region has six districts for D-VII, but only four district champions can make up a regional tournament. Therefore, the southwest region with just three districts gets another district champion from another region. Before the tournament started, district athletic boards determined the bracket formula of where everyone would land. In 2024 that formula for the southwest region included the Central District champion instead.
This Wednesday's prime time matchup between Russia and Mohawk was set up late last week. On Thursday the Raiders earned their regional ticket after beating state-ranked #17 Tri-County North (16-10) in a six inning run rule, 10-0. Then on Saturday, the Warriors also won easily over South Central (16-11) by the final score of 9-1.
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| Russia coaches have built a winning culture |
Russia High School no longer needs an introduction to small school sports teams around the state. Foremost, their baseball tradition is well known and documented. Head coach Kevin Phlipot has racked up a whopping 216 career victories so far in just his 10th season. In the four year span from 2021-2024 the Raiders recorded win totals of 26, 25, 26 and a school record 27 last year. That lofty standard is perhaps why some baseball experts naively lost faith in the program this year as they scrambled together 14 regular season wins. A rational understanding would include opening the season just two weeks after Russia's basketball state championship with a roster full of multi-sport athletes, a brutal spring schedule of games, and a pitching ace that couldn't toe the rubber until May 9th.
Of course that pitching ace would be Braylon Cordonnier. For anyone living in a cave the past four years, Cordonnier is a Marshall University baseball commit recently named Shelby County Athletic League Player of the Year for the third straight season. He also injured the middle finger on his throwing hand during basketball season and was instructed not to bend it for a really long time. So, after four pitching starts to date, Cordonnier is just now getting his groove back. The best evidence of that was his most recent outing at the district championship. He threw a complete game shutout scattering four hits and two walks with nine strikeouts. Cordonnier is leading Russia at the plate too with a .478 batting average and six homers. Furthermore, one final statistic that's particularly glaring is 97 total plate appearances with 26 walks and only four strikeouts. It's safe to say "Bray" has forced opposing coaches to calculate their odds on every pitch.
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| Braylon Cordonnier's sixth home run of the season versus Catholic Central went over the flagpole at Russia. He's also one dinger away from tying the single season school record. |
Eight total seniors litter the Raiders roster. Along with Cordonnier are Vince Borchers, Zeb Borchers, Micah Grieshop, Landon Pleiman, Zeb Schulze, Caleb Unverferth and Benjamin York. The coaching staff recently told Fish Report these seniors have always embraced Russia culture and that's the biggest reason for all their success the past four years. Each senior contributes in their own way and has made a difference at some point through 27 games so far. One recent example is York hitting his first home run "since little league" at the district championship. In that game, the seniors also accounted for 10 of the 12 hits by the Raiders.
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| Unverferth is veteran presence at any position |
The other two Russia hits last Thursday came from junior Cooper Unverferth, who is second on the team in batting average at .360. For Fish Report readers old enough to remember, Unverferth is a modern day Craig Biggio. The former Houston Astros Hall of Famer was an all-star catcher and second baseman, as is Unverferth. Actually, "Coop" might be better than Biggio because he also has a team-best four pitching wins with a 1.00 ERA this season. His junior teammates for the Raiders include Leo Counts, Maddox Goubeaux and Michael Voisard. Sophomores on the roster are Eli Borchers, Brody Phlipot and Sam Prenger. Freshman are Grant Bergman, Quinn Hoying and Parker Lloyd.
While pitching is arguably Russia's strongest quality heading into the regional tournament, one thing certain about the Mohawk Warriors is their penchant for timely base hitting. All 11 of Mohawk's hits in their district final win were singles, but most importantly they were 6-for-13 with runners in scoring position. Leading the way from the second spot in the batting order was senior Hunter Haynes with three hits. Haynes is the Northern 10 Athletic Conference Player of the Year and was the second best hitter in the entire conference this season with a .452 average. He's also swiped 26 stolen bases. Haynes is a pitcher too and earned the complete game win at the district championship allowing one earned run, three hits, and one walk with five strikeouts.
Mohawk head coach Zach Hawkins was
interviewed after the district championship and asked about his pitching staff. He ranks Haynes, senior Kaleb Bish, senior Elias Magallanes and sophomore Andon Clouse all number one pitchers. That may sound like typical coach speak, but in this case it's probably not. Haynes is 6-1 with a 1.52 ERA and Bish is 6-0 with a 0.76 ERA. Leading the Warriors in strikeouts is Clouse with 46 and a 1.56 ERA followed by Magallanes with 45 and a 2.12 ERA. Any Fish Report readers remember the names Maddux, Smoltz, Glavine and Avery?
Finally, for any Russia fans overlooking a team that earned their regional ticket with 11 base hit singles. Keep an eye on Mohawk cleanup batter and third baseman #3 Kaden Bish. He's a first team all-conference honoree with his older brother Kaleb. The sophomore also wrestles and placed at the State Meet back in March, which might be a clue as to why he leads the Warriors in home runs with three.
