Ethan Strunk, right, of the Fayetteville Rockets slides into home plate against the New Richmond River Rats in the Class B Junior East Region Knothole Baseball playoffs at Mt. Orab. The Rockets won the game, 7-3, before falling to the eventual division champions, the New Richmond Lions.
With the ball coming in just off his right hip, Wesley Yaczik, right, of the Mt. Orab Diamondbacks beats the throw to third base during an East Region Knothole Baseball Class B Senior playoff game.
Fayetteville Spartans third baseman Blake Jordan, left, leaps to haul in the throw while Noah Gaunce of the Milford Machine slides safely into third during the first round of the Class A East Region Knothole Baseball playoffs.
The Fayetteville Rockets Class B Junior Knothole Baseball team knows what it’s like to lose to the best.
Or at least the team that, in the end, would prove to be best.
After winning their opening game over the Mt. Orab Broncos, the Rockets fell to the New Richmond Lions in the Class B Junior division East Region Knothole Baseball tournament at Mt. Orab. Then, after the Lions lost later in the tournament, the two teams met again in the loser’s bracket, with the Lions again getting the upper hand on their way to the division title.
In between those losses, the Rockets reeled off three consecutive wins to put together the best run by an area Brown County team in the East Region playoffs.
“I am super proud of this great group of young men for playing together as a team and showing up to play the baseball we know how to play,” Fayetteville coach Logan Hundley said after a Rockets’ victory over another New Richmond team – the River Rats – earlier in the tournament.
In the Class B Senior division in Milford, the Mt. Orab Diamondbacks won their first game – over another Fayetteville Rockets team – then lost their second and won two loser’s bracket games before also falling to the eventual division champs, the Anderson Arsenal.
In the Class C Senior Silver division, the Georgetown Sluggers lost their opener to the eventual division champs, the Bethel Tigers, then won two in a row before falling another win short of earning a rematch with the Tigers for the title.
Also, the Georgetown Kings won a game in the Class D Junior Gold division, yet another Fayetteville Rockets team won a game in the Class D Senior Silver division, and in the Class C Junior division, the Mt. Orab Raptors won their opener before losing their next two.
The Fayetteville Spartans, the lone area Brown County team in Class A in the tournament, lost their first two games.
The nearly month-long tournament was held at sites across the greater Cincinnati area, including at area Brown County and Clermont County fields.
Besides the Class B Junior champion New Richmond Lions, who won their title here in Brown County at Mt. Orab, three other neighboring area Clermont County teams also won titles: the Milford Mavericks, Class C Junior division; the Milford Maniacs, Class D Senior Gold division; and the Bethel Tigers, Class C Senior Silver division. The Mavericks, Maniacs and Tigers each won all four of their games in the tournament, while the Lions won five games in coming back through the loser’s bracket.
“This team started together in 2022, and with the exception of a couple of players, has remained together building on that success this season,” Mavericks coach Erik Shifflett said. “We began training in mid-January with the goals of qualifying for the Knothole World Series and making it further than we did in 2022 and earning an opportunity to play in the East Region championship game, again an improvement over the previous year. We did both. The team placed third in the city Knothole World Series and we earned our way to the East Region Knothole championship (title). We’re planning to do it all again in 2024.”
Another New Richmond Lions team finished second to the Mavericks in the Class C Junior division, also winning five games after losing to the Mavericks early and coming back through the loser’s bracket.
Other area Clermont County teams finishing second included the Batavia Bulldogs, who finished runner-up to the Tigers in the Class C Senior Silver division; the Goshen Hurricanes, who finished behind the Class B Junior’s New Richmond Lions; and the Bethel Redlegs, second to the WT Warriors in Class A.