Prep baseball: Seventh-inning rally sparks Cincinnati Christian to D-IV district title

The Cincinnati Christian School baseball team is headed to the Division IV regionals.

The Cougars stunned Franklin Monroe with two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning Saturday and captured a district championship as Connor Ploetz had a walkoff RBI bunt in a 7-6 triumph at Springboro.

Alex Johnson had two hits and an RBI for CCS (15-8), and Mitchell Smith pitched an eight-hitter with four strikeouts. Ploetz and Cody Anderson both drove in two runs, while Alex Bertram scored twice.

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Curtus Moak’s Cougars led 5-3 after one inning, but didn’t score again until their last at-bat.

In the seventh, Bertram led off by reaching base on an error. Johnson flew out, then Jacob Carroll, Winston Spencer and Anderson walked, bringing Bertram home with the tying run. Carroll then scored the winning run on the Ploetz bunt.

Cincinnati Christian will meet Russia in a regional semifinal at 2 p.m. on Thursday at Carleton Davidson Stadium in Springfield. Fort Loramie and Minster will play in the second semifinal at 5 p.m., and the regional title will be decided Friday at 5 p.m.