MIAMISBURG — Beau Chaney may not have felt like some of his stuff was working on the mound.
But enough of it did for the Badin High School sophomore right-hander.
Chaney struck out seven in six innings of shutout work and the Rams pieced together adequate run support to capture a Division II district title with their 6-0 victory over the Tippecanoe Red Devils on Thursday night at Dayton Christian’s Honaker Field.
“My fastball wasn’t doing too good,” Chaney said. “My slider, I could throw it for a strike every time when I wanted to. But then after the fourth inning, I started throwing fastballs for strikes because I got more confident with it after a while.”
Badin, ranked sixth in the final state poll, will face Indian Hill in a regional semifinal Thursday at 2 p.m. at Mason.
“I just thought we executed baseball plays today,” Rams coach Brion Treadway said. “Our batters had a plan with their approach, and they stuck with it. They got the jobs done. We didn’t get a ton of hits, but they did their job that they were asked to do. I just thought we played a really good game.
“I thought with Beau Chaney, I wasn’t surprised. He’s grown exponentially throughout the year. I can see that he’s a confident guy. I’m just really proud of the way he handled that moment.”
Badin (24-6) has won five in a row and eight of its last nine. The Rams beat Tippecanoe 1-0 in the 2022 tournament and 11-1 in last year’s regular season.
“Tippecanoe is a great team,” Treadway said. “They play in a tough league. They’ve gone up against some really tough competition. So, we knew that this was going to be a tough game.”
“They said we were down this year,” Chaney chimed in. “I think we took that personally, and we just came out here with a ton of energy. We wanted to show them that we’re up this year. We’re better than what we were last year.”
Kyle Anderson went 1 for 3 with three RBIs to lead the Rams at the plate, while Chandler Taylor (1 for 3, two runs), Chase Luebbe (1 for 2, RBI, run), Austin Buckle (RBI, run), Xander Arnold (1 for 1, RBI), Austin Vangen (1 for 2) and Cooper Ollis (walk, run) also contributed.
“All we care about is getting back to Alumni Field to practice,” Anderson said. “We’re a young team, but if we do the simple things, we will get the job done.
“We’ve had long practices in between games and after games. Practices translate to games. We practiced everything that ended up happening today.”
The Rams got a run in the first and sixth innings, but it was a four-run third that separated things. Anderson’s two-RBI single highlighted Badin’s surge in the third.
Badin senior Tyler Verdin came in on relief to close it out in the seventh.
Tippecanoe, which finished fourth in the Miami Valley League Valley Division, ended its season at 17-13.
“The job is not done,” Chaney said. “We’re just excited and blessed to go this far again. We’ll just keep the energy going into this next game.”
“School’s out now, so guys are a year older,” Treadway added. “They’ve got a lot of experience under their belts. So having a bunch of new dudes on varsity is no longer a thing. They’ve been up here for a while and have been with us every day. They’ve matured and grown. I’m really proud of them, and it’s a lot of fun to coach them.”
