“We had a pretty good idea they were going to make it back there the way they were rolling,” Chaminade Julienne coach Mike Barhorst said Wednesday. “I think everyone’s pretty excited to get another shot at them. I think coming into (last) year, maybe we didn’t think we were going to make it that far, but once we got there, we thought we belonged there. That was kind of a tough way to end the year, not being able to score a run, but everyone’s kind of relished the chance to get back there. It’s kind of fitting Tallmadge is the team we’ll see again because if we want to win, we would like to beat the best. Obviously, you start with Tallmadge.”
Tallmadge (19-11) ranks 17th in the state. It won the championship last season for the first time since 2002, when it made its last state appearance.
» STATE PREVIEW: Fort Loramie, Coldwater play Thursday
Chaminade Julienne (22-5) will play in the state tournament for the second straight season for the first time. Senior Ryan Peltier will start Friday. He started the championship game last season and allowed four runs on eight hits in six innings.
“We know they’ve got left-handed hitters,” Barhorst said. “We talked about throwing Sebastian (Gongora). We talked with Ryan, our captain. We kind of let him tell us what he thought, and we were going to go with how he felt. He said he wanted the ball. He would like another shot at them. You’ve got to win that first one. You don’t want to leave your No. 1 guy on the bench. You’ve got to go at them with your best guy.”
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