OxfordPress.com

OXFORD — Badin High School baseball coach Rick Kunkel said his team learned a couple important lessons Monday, March 30.

"It's good that they know they can come back," Kunkel said, "and that they have to battle."

Yes, the defending Division III state runners-up had to battle. And battle. And battle. The Talawanda Braves gave the Rams as much as they could handle for 11 innings before Badin finally broke loose for nine runs in the top of the 12th to win its season opener 14-5.

It was a battle from start to finish. First Badin had to rally from an early 5-0 deficit, and later when the Rams' bats finally did break loose they had to fight against time and growing darkness.

Talawanda's Pfister Field has no lights and when Alex Rieman became the ninth consecutive Badin batter to reach base in the 12th inning with his run-scoring single, Kunkel was more than aware that the light was fading fast and the Braves still were owed a time at bat. A game called on account of darkness — with Badin's 12th-inning outburst wiped out — was beginning to look like a possibility.

Kunkel said he wondered about telling his players to start swinging at every pitch. "But you hate to tell your kids to do that," he said.

Talawanda pitchers Cody Yates and Sam Stephenson had allowed Badin to collect hits in only three of the first 11 innings, but in the 12th, Scott Staarmann sparked the Rams' rally with a one-out single. He scored the go-ahead run on Zach Toerner's two-out triple and then the floodgates swung wide open.

There also were a two-run homer by Brett McKinney, run-scoring doubles by Scott Purcell and Staarmann, and run-scoring singles by Frankie Pate and Rieman. It was not a good twilight time for Talawanda.

"I'm pleased with the level of talent we have," THS coach Pete Maus said. "I am not pleased with our execution. We wasted quite a few opportunities."

The Braves had loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth following Braden Park's one-out triple and a couple intentional walks. Badin reliever Jake Clear, however, worked his way out of trouble with a strikeout and fielder's choice.

Back-to-back doubles by Todd Weiser and Park had helped THS take a 4-0 lead in the first inning, and Park's RBI single made it 5-0 in the second.