Nick Cain was the winning pitcher against Vandalia. He helped himself with a three-run double in the third inning that put Trophy Sports ahead for good, 4-3. Jordan Scott had a based-loaded double to key a seven-run fifth.
During the spring the Bucs had a nondescript 8-13 record, finished last in the South Division of Greater Western Ohio Conference (4-9), had a team batting average of .227 and pitching staff earned-run average of 4.32.
The bulk of that team has stayed together playing ACME competition. ACME ball has been around, mostly in northwest Ohio, for 50 years. It has only caught on in southwest Ohio the past 10 years.
“We probably shocked a lot of people by going to state because of the spring these guys had,” Xenia coach Scott Owlsey. “I didn’t get to see a lot of high school games because of my work schedule. But I know they didn’t hit real well in spring and weren’t real solid in the field. So we’ve worked a lot on swinging the bat and the fielding fundamentals.”
Owlsey, a Centerville police officer, has coached the Trophy Sports team all five years it has been in the ACME program. High school head coaches are not allowed to coach the summer teams.
“We got to the district finals three years ago, but that’s the farthest we’ve ever gone,” he said. “This group of kids who are going to be juniors have played together since the third grade and done pretty well.”
Many ACME teams are made up of incoming sophomores and juniors who were on a school’s reserve team with an eye on moving up to the varsity. The incoming seniors usually play in various select programs.
Of the 13 players on Trophy Sports, eight were on the varsity in the spring.
“Rick Lorenzo, the head coach at the high school, decided to keep everyone together in this summer because they were such a young team this past spring,” Owlsey said. “We didn’t lose anybody to a select team.
“We had a couple of kids who could have played for other programs, but they decided they wanted to play with their friends. Plus, it didn’t cost them hardly anything.”
Along with the sponsorship of Trophy Sports, Owlsey got some financial support from the Greene County FOP, some off-season fund-raisers and individual business donations.
“We also had some money left over from last year’s team. So the parents didn’t have to put out much,” he said.
The lineup has juniors Danny Thomas and Jonathan Rose sharing the catching. Junior Andrew Bolka and senior Andrew Luttrell split time at first base. The rest of the regular infield is seniors with Josh Hiney at second, Troy Koze and shortstop and Joe Everhart at third.
The outfielders — depending on who is pitching — are Cain, Scott, Alex Briggs, Clint Krakowiak, Tyler Williams and Nick Arnett.
The pitchers include Cain, who was second team All-GWOC South, Bolka, Krakowiak, Koze and Hiney.
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