Bellefontaine’s baseball team has found its peak at the right time.
Despite struggling early in the season, the Chieftains have been red hot over the last three weeks.
They continued their inspired play Thursday, avenging a regular-season loss to Benjamin Logan by defeating the visiting Raiders 5-2 in a Division II sectional semifinal at Blue Jacket Park.
Bellefontaine is now 15-9 on the season. The ninth-seeded Chiefs will face top-seeded Dayton Chaminade-Julienne in a sectional final Tuesday.
The Raiders end their season with a record of 9-14.
Thursday’s win was the 10th in the last 11 games for the Chiefs. Bellefontaine is 13-3 over its last 16 games.
“Collectively, I noticed a big shift when we played Marysville (on April 15),” said BHS head coach Russ Hogue. “We had been struggling before that, but we beat Marysville and our guys started to believe in each other. We’ve been a different team since that game.
“Our guys have been grinding it out and leaning on each other. We’ve had to play a bunch of different guys, but everyone is doing their job and filling their role.”
The Chiefs lost to the Raiders 8-2 during the second week of the regular season.
Bellefontaine struck first in the rematch, putting a run on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second inning for a 1-0 lead.
The Raiders jumped in front 2-1 with a pair of runs in the top of the third.
Bellefontaine answered with a run in the bottom off the third to tie the score at 2-2.
The Chiefs regained the lead in the fourth with another run to make it 3-2.
Bellefontaine added a pair of runs in the fifth inning and held on the rest of the way to advance to the next round.
Owen Larison went 2-3, Liam Yoder had a double and J.T. Mundy had two RBI to fuel the Chieftain offense.
Riley Neer and Yoder each had an RBI.
Chris Fogan worked the final four innings on the mound to get the win for the Chiefs.
Fogan allowed just one hit while striking out three and walking three.
He came on in relief after starting pitcher Kaden Reames was ejected for running into a Ben Logan player on the base paths.
“What a gutsy performance from Chris,” said Hogue. “What he did is kind of like our team in a nutshell right now. Chris didn’t think he was going to have to pitch. Who would have thought Kaden would be ejected? That was a gut punch for us. But Chris stepped up when his number was called and got the job done.”
Ian Scheiderer had a pair of hits to lead the Raiders.
Bellefontaine will now face a challenging task against a very talented C-J team on Tuesday, but Hogue is confident his guys will continue to rise to the occasion.
“It comes down to not giving any free passes, whether that is a walk or an error,” said Hogue. “We want our pitchers to challenge them. Our defense is playing really well right now. Force them to put the ball in play and let our defense make plays.”
BELLEFONTAINE 5, Ben Logan 2
Raiders 002 000 0 — 2 3 1
Chiefs 011 120 X — 5 9 3
WP—Fogan; LP—Martin.