Ottawa Hills aiming high at baseball tournament time

May 13—In a time in sports when athletes and coaches from most teams find it taboo, bad luck, or needlessly risky to speak boldly about their level of talent and championship expectations, the Ottawa Hills baseball team of veteran coach Chris Hardman does not shy away from announcing its intentions.

The Green Bears believe they are good enough to win a Division III state championship this season, and aren't afraid to say it.

If you think Hardman, in his 41st season, ought to know better, think again.

He has taken seven Ottawa Hills teams to the state final four, winning a Class A state title in 1986, and finishing as Division IV state runner-up in 1992, 1996, and 2001.

Of all of those teams, Hardman (641 career wins) says none had more overall talent and pitching depth than his current Green Bears. And, none have been as battle-tested with quality game experience, both in summer ball and in the spring season.

It was that experience — and a glut of winning against most area teams last summer — that led Hardman to hint at a state-title mission in a preseason discussion of his team's potential.

"My wife said to me, 'Don't put that kind of pressure on the kids,' Hardman said. "She said, 'Remember that last group you said that to? They were so disappointed. They got beat in the regional finals and everybody was crying.'

"I said, 'No. We're going to aim high.' I know what the odds are, and so what? Somebody's going to win. Our kids have put in the work to be rewarded.

"Now, you have to play the games, but we're good, the kids know they're good, and the thing I'm guarding against now is never getting too high or too low. In baseball, the best team doesn't always win."

With its 7-0 nonleague win at Maumee on Tuesday, Ottawa Hills improved to 19-2 overall and is 8-1 in the Toledo Area Athletic Conference.

If one area has stood out above the rest this season, it is Ottawa Hills' depth of quality pitching.

Hardman uses an adjustable rotation of six to seven pitchers, who are able to go the distance when needed or contribute one or two innings when the schedule becomes bunched.

Junior Jack Genzman, who earned a complete-game win against Anthony Wayne last Saturday, is 6-0 with a 0.76 earned run average and 56 strikeouts in 37 innings.

Junior Adam Hamilton is 4-0 with a 0.95 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 22 innings. Junior Alex Neumunitis is 3-1 with two saves and a 2.45 ERA. Juniors Andy Neumunitis (Alex's twin brother) and Warren Goik are also reliable, as are seniors Jackson Hanrehan and Jordan Reiter.

"We've got so many arms we could almost play every day," Hardman said. "I've never had that before. Every year we've been to Columbus [for final four], we did it with one or two pitchers, and this year we have a glut. Right now, the guys are throwing pretty well, so we'll see."

Hardman has a lineup that can produce from 1 through 9 in the batting order.

The leadoff hitter is senior center fielder Jack Aiken, who is hitting .419 with 11 runs batted in. He is followed by junior catcher Blake Gnepper (.400, 14 RBIs) and shortstop Alex Neumunitis (.379, 20 RBIs).

"It's our chemistry," Aiken said. "We've been playing together for about 10 years as a group at our school, and we've been killing it.

"We're going to keep putting it together. Put the bats together, and our strong defense. Hopefully, we can keep it together for our state tournament run."

The potent middle of the order includes cleanup hitter Hanrehan (right field-first base, .444, 21 RBIs).

"It's all the work we put in," Hanrehan said of Ottawa Hills' success. "During practice, we prepare for all of those key moments. We push ourselves every day to get ready for those big games."

Does Hanrehan buy into his coach's championship optimism?

"Of course I believe it," he said. "It's definitely not out of the realm of possibility. With all the work we put in, it's not a stretch to say that we can maybe win state. "But, we're going game by game. We focus on the now. That's our end goal — to win state."

Hanrehan is followed by senior third baseman Andrew Helgren (.341, 14 RBIs), and sophomore designated hitter A.J. George (.522, 10 RBIs).

"Our team is special because we work so well together," Helgren said. "We've had a lot of experience together. The juniors now were freshmen two years ago, and we were brought together then as a team. We had lost a lot of seniors then, so there was a lot of responsibility on the freshmen and sophomores. That really brought us closer together as a group."

The 7-8-9 spots have been filled by second baseman Andy Neumunitis (.392, 15 RBIs), first baseman Goik (.432, 12 RBIs), and junior left fielder Truman Talbott (.343, 6 RBI).

"To me, batting averages don't mean anything because, like my dad always said, he'd take a 1-for-4 if the one was with two guys in scoring position," Hardman said. "I tell the kids, 'Don't tell me what your average is against bad pitching because we'll beat that team anyhow.'

"With this team, the goal is to be able to beat good pitching and good teams. At some point, that's what you're going to heave to do to win in the tournament. You've got to beat good pitchers."

With Hardman's teams annually playing a challenging nonleague schedule against bigger schools with quality programs, the Green Bears don't often post eye-popping season records.

His philosophy is that 'Iron sharpens iron,' and competing against larger schools with more talented pitching will have his team ready to face smaller-school tourney foes (usually D-IV, this year D-III).

Of his past teams that have reached state-title games, the best overall record was the 2001 Green Bears, who finished 23-9 with a 4-2 loss to Cincinnati Country Day in the D-IV championship that year.

All of those past teams have played nonleague games against some of northwest Ohio's perennially strong programs — Start, Perrysburg, Anthony Wayne, St. Francis de Sales, St. John's Jesuit, etc.

The biggest difference this season is that the Green Bears are beating most of them.

Most notable was Ottawa Hills' 4-2 home win last Saturday against Anthony Wayne, which came in 16-1 and ranked No. 1 in the Ohio Division I state coaches poll.

That was three days after the Bears traveled north of the border and took a 6-2 win at Blissfield, which is 20-2 and ranked No. 4 in Michigan's Division 3 state poll.

Currently riding a 16-game winning streak, Ottawa Hills has mixed in nonleague wins over Wauseon (9-0), Genoa (8-0), Start (16-3), Fairview (13-3), Swanton (15-0), and Archbold (2-0).

"Playing a good schedule usually has good benefit," Hardman said, "but you'd better have a group of kids that understands what you're trying to do, or they might end up thinking they're not very good."

With 32 players in his current program, Hardman has never seen such depth since first guiding the Bears in 1976, and such collective quality. The Ottawa Hills junior varsity team is 16-3.

But perhaps the biggest reason for the current level of play is the amount of baseball experience many of these players have accumulated together, some for up to 10 years together on Ottawa Hills house league youth teams and travel-league teams.

Why is this team capable of a deep tournament run?

"It's easy to identify," Hardman said. "They have done all the obligatory stuff growing up together playing baseball. The team chemistry has been wonderful.

"We had a great summer, The [Ohio High School Athletic Association] took away the 10-day [contact limit] rule and we played every doggone day. We played a tournament every weekend, and the kids had to fight and develop a pretty special chemistry."

Since last reaching a D-IV state semifinal in 2010, Ottawa Hills has gotten as far as regionals three times — losing in the regional finals in 2011 and 2018, and in the semifinals in 2012.

"The potential weakness is how do you handle high expectation," Hardman said. "We may get beat, and it'll take somebody good to do it. It's going to be a day where maybe we're not at our best, or somebody is really phenomenal. That happens. We know that.

"But, the kids are playing at a pretty high level, and my goal is to make sure that they don't take anything for granted and just work to get better today."

Hardman, 69, is also the head football coach at Ottawa Hills. Being retired from teaching for nine years helps with the balancing of guiding both Green Bear programs. All of his life experience has led to philosophy of optimism tempered with common sense.

"Johnny Wooden said, 'Don't ever get too high or too low,'" Hardman said, quoting the legendary UCLA basketball coach. "That's what we're attempting to do with this team without stifling the wonderful boyish enthusiasm they have for playing the game.

"I don't want them to lose that, but I also don't want them to think they're all that. We've got to play well today. That's all that matters."

First Published May 12, 2021, 6:19pm