Prep baseball: Versailles scores in every inning to oust Madison

The Tigers advanced to the regional final for the first time since 2016 with an 8-4 victory.

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The scoring started when Zach Griesdorn tripled with two outs in the first and scored on a single by Will Eversole.

“We came up really big today,” Versailles coach Ryan Schlater said. “It was big to get the triple there, and then to score that run, it was big to get that momentum. It just continued from there. Even when they scored those four runs, we put one up on the board to get the momentum back.”

The Tigers (17-9) advanced to the 5 p.m. regional final on Friday against Roger Bacon, which beat Cincinnati Country Day 4-2 in the first regional semifinal at Wright State. Versailles seeks its ninth state berth and first since 2016. Roger Bacon seeks its first state berth since 1968.

The regional champion plays in the state final four at 4 p.m. June 8 at Canal Park in Akron. The Division III state championship takes place a day later at 7 p.m.

Madison (24-7) fell to 0-3 all time in the regional tournament. A year ago, the Mohawks beat Versailles 1-0 in eight innings.

Madison coach Matt Morrison said he rolled the dice by starting Jake Munafo and pitching Luke Hughes in relief while saving Tristan Sipple, who would have pitched the regional final.

“I don’t regret our decision,” Morrison said. “The difference in the game was four runs, and we had four errors. We talk about dominating routine plays and scoring with two outs, and we didn’t dominate the routine plays but we scored with two outs.”

Eversole led the Madison offense, going 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a double. Jared DeMange, Kyle Pothast and Garrett Toops also had RBIs.

Griesdorn earned the victory, allowing three earned runs on four hits in six innings. He walked the first three batters of the game but got out of the jam thanks in part to the catcher Pothast throwing out the first batter to reach stealing second.

“It was a tight zone today,” Schlater said. “He kind of battled through. He had some tough innings when he couldn’t find the plate, but the defense really helped him out today.”