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By Rick Cassano
HAMILTON – It may take a while for that championship glow to fade within Badin High School’s baseball program.
The Rams waited a long time to get back to the top of the mountain, so that’s only natural.
It’s been just under two months since Badin topped Columbus Watterson in the Division III state championship game at Canal Park in Akron, giving the Rams their first state title since 1996 and capping Brion Treadway’s 15th season as head coach.
“Winning it all is the best because of a lot of things,” Treadway said. “We’ve been one of the most successful programs in the state, but we always had that asterisk of, ‘Well, but they haven’t won it in 30 years.’ To just be able to shed that, get rid of it and allow these good vibes to finally just get out there on their own, it’s just great.”
Badin ended the season on a 25-game winning streak and finished 29-3. The Rams didn’t taste defeat after dropping back-to-back decisions against Tampa Jesuit (6-1 on April 8) and IMG Academy (3-1 on April 10) in Florida.
Treadway conceded he didn’t expect to run the table after returning from the Sunshine State, but he said his squad earned praise from the Florida coaches, a likely sign of good things to come in Ohio.
“Playing so well against such great teams so early in the season definitely gave us a confidence boost,” said Treadway, who stands 330-107 at the BHS helm. “I think we all felt good leaving Florida.”
What came thereafter was a long stretch of high-quality baseball from the Rams. They won every game the rest of the way by at least 3 runs except for the May 25 triumph over Lakota East, a 5-4 walkoff affair.
For the season, Badin outscored its opponents 267-58 and finished with national rankings from Prep Baseball Report (No. 26) and MaxPreps (No. 32).
“This was the hardest schedule we’ve ever played,” Treadway said. “It’s awesome to be recognized across the country. A lot of states use MaxPreps and they ranked us as the No. 1 team overall in Ohio, so I definitely take a lot of pride in that.”
The Rams had come up short of a championship in 11 straight state appearances before taking down Parma Padua Franciscan (5-2) and then Watterson (7-2) this year in Akron. And there were some special plays along the way.
Badin turned three double plays against Watterson. Against Padua, Treadway emphasized a play by Austin Vangen that was worthy of more notice.
It was a 2-2 game in the bottom of the sixth when Vangen drew a leadoff walk and Cooper Clay popped out on a sacrifice-bunt attempt. As the Bruin infielders celebrated, Vangen took off and made it to second base anyway. Vangen scored the go-ahead run as the Rams crossed the plate three times in the inning.
“It was just an incredible heads-up baseball play that a lot of people will overlook,” Treadway said of Vangen’s advancement to second. “I think that’s when the game flipped. Padua was a really good team. They surprised me a lot at how gritty of an opponent they were. We needed all of those runs.”
Badin had 21 seniors this season, yet there were four sophomores on the field – Beau Neal, shortstop Derek Ogden, right fielder Clay and catcher Keegan Sawyer – when the season ended.
Neal pitched two innings to finish the state final – it was his first appearance in the postseason. He entered the game with no outs and one man on in the top of the sixth inning.
“Our infielders didn’t know who was coming in,” Treadway said. “You couldn’t really see that well, and they all said different names. Finally somebody said, ‘I think that’s Beau Neal,’ and they were like, ‘Hell, yeah.’ It was kind of a cool moment on the mound.”
The final out was a 6-3 grounder, Ogden to first baseman Vince Laugle.
“It felt like it took the ball forever to get to first base,” Treadway said. “But once that final out was called, the coaching staff hugged for a really long time and then we joined our players out on the field. Coach (Rick) Kunkel was in the bullpen the whole game, so he took a while to get to the mound, but then we just re-celebrated as a coaching staff with him.
“I think the first player I came in contact with was Chandler Taylor – I gave him a big hug. The whole thing was an incredible feeling. I just remember pure joy. Celebrating with so many people in the stands, getting to hug my wife after the game, all the phone calls and texts and all the former players that truly seemed to participate in the joy and celebration of that win … it was just pretty incredible.”
The Rams ended up hitting .366 as a team with a collective earned run average of 1.79. They won 11 games by shutout.
Taylor (.444), Laugle (.432), Cade Cummins (.419) and Ogden (.404) were the leading hitters. Taylor had three home runs, a team-leading 32 RBIs and 10 stolen bases. Sawyer hit .388 with three homers with 29 RBIs and 12 steals. Ogden stole a team-best 24 bases.
On the mound, Caleb Driessen (8-1, 1.07 ERA, 74 strikeouts in 59 innings) and Brooks Treadway (7-0, 1.00 ERA, 17 strikeouts in 35 innings) were the top guys. Driessen got the win against Padua. Treadway was the victorious hurler against Watterson.
“I never want to be disrespectful because we’ve had a lot of good teams, but this team was one of the best teams that’s ever played at Badin,” Brion Treadway said. “We were definitely very, very talented, but having so many guys with Final Four experience definitely helped us out as well.”
He said past state defeats weren’t part of his mind-set heading north this year.
“I honestly did not allow my mind to go there,” Treadway said. “There was only one way this was going to end, and I don’t ever remember saying that before. I expected to go up there and win every year, but this year was just different in that it was verbalized. I didn’t know what it would look like or who was going to step up, but there was only one way this was going to end and that’s with us coming home as state champs.
“Every day was fun. I will probably speak for all my coaches when I say those seasons where you lose your last game sticks with you. The bigger the moment, the weirder the circumstance, it just sticks with you. I think players move on pretty quickly. They get back to playing summer ball and college baseball. As a coach, though, you kind of have to hold onto that until you get started against in February. So not having to go through that is very enjoyable. It’s been a great celebration all summer long.”
That celebration has included recognition from the Cincinnati Reds and Hamilton City Council. The Rams are scheduled to receive their state championship rings at a home basketball game in December.
Badin will return three starters next season and begin the year in Florida with four games at an event hosted by Tampa Jesuit. Treadway loves the early-season challenges that trips to Florida provide.
“Our younger classes are very talented,” said Treadway, who noted that he’s not coaching this summer for the first time in a long while. “I think next season is going to be a very fun year to be a coach because I think a lot of teams around town are going to be counting us out and thinking we’re going to be down. It’ll be fun to try to prove them otherwise.”
Adding to Badin’s joy-filled summer was the selection of two former Rams, outfielder Lucas Moore and pitcher Aiden VanDeHatert, in the major league baseball draft. Moore was picked in the fifth round by the Cleveland Guardians, while VanDeHatert went to the Boston Red Sox in the 20th round. Both players signed.
Pitching Spencer Giesting and outfielder Landyn Vidourek are also representing Badin in the minor leagues. Giesting is part of the Arizona Diamondbacks organization and playing for the Triple-A Reno Aces in Nevada. Vidourek was recently traded from the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Colorado Rockies, and he’s playing with the Single-A Fresno Grizzlies in California.
“Watching the draft is fun when you’ve got guys that are in the mix to get picked, and getting two guys picked this year was an incredible feeling for our whole coaching staff and alumni,” Treadway said. “We’ve got a lot of guys playing college baseball. It’s all fun to keep up with.”
Treadway is now a state champion as a player and coach. He was the winning pitcher in both Final Four games in 1996 when Badin took the Division II state title.
Asked to sum up this year’s run to the championship, Treadway had this to say:
“Winning is hard. It didn’t seem like it was hard this year, but it is hard. I just feel like a lot of us were carrying around an unnecessary burden, the weight of not getting it done. We all said we weren’t doing that, but I think a lot of people felt that weight fall off after we won. I don’t know that we actually realized how big of a weight we were all carrying around until we finally won.”
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