'We saw a lot of growth:' Buckeye Central bows out of tournament play as sectional runner-up

GREENWICH — Chad Jensen knew his Bucks would have to play a perfect game in a Division IV sectional championship at South Central on Thursday night.

Buckeye Central started out strong with Austin Estridge striking out the first three Trojan batters, but the hosts strung hits together in the second and never looked back, winning 10-0 in five innings.

"That's such a good team," Jensen said. "Our kids gave a great effort, they came ready to go. They're just a good team and put the ball in play like they needed to do. They did what they had to do to get base runners and they didn't necessarily hit it real hard against us — a couple of bloops and things like that — but credit to them."

A hard hit ball to third could've led to an inning-ending double play in the second, but instead loaded the bases for South Central. An error allowed one runner to score, and a sacrifice groundout scored another for a 2-0 lead. Three more runs tacked in on the third were followed by the Trojans batting through the order scoring on an error, bases-loaded walk, two sac flies and a single to right field.

"We knew that from scouting them that they just put the bat on the ball," Jensen said. "We were hoping we could kind of combat that a little bit, but Austin pitched really well. He got some ground balls, he hit his spots and he did a great job. A few things just didn't go our way."

The Bucks were held to just three hits from Isaac Hiler, Hunter Caudill and Lance Cole, and struck out eight times. Estridge finished with three strikeouts, seven hits allowed and five earned runs before Jeremiah Fishpaw came in for the last inning.

It's the program's second consecutive sectional runner-up, and with just four seniors departing — albeit important ones — the future is bright in Dutchtown.

"It's a fun group of kids, a really fun group to be around," Jensen said. "They enjoy coming the field every day. We have four seniors, and one junior, so we played a lot of young kids and saw a lot of growth this year and a lot of improvement.

"We had some guys start the year that had played some, but then we had guys that hadn't. I'm just glad we get to have them for one more game."

Buckeye Central closes out its season on Saturday finishing a postponed league game against Upper Sandusky.

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