'They started playing for each other:' Camaraderie key to Galion 10-game win streak
GALION - Coach Kenny Fagan vividly remembers the bus ride home from Sparta on April 17.
The Tigers had just lost their fifth consecutive game after opening the season with five-straight wins. That loss, a 10-0 drubbing by Highland in six innings, proved to be the turning point of the season.
"We got smacked, and we really didn't enjoy it too much," Fagan said. "It was a pretty quiet bus ride, but when we got off, they just had this feeling of — man, we never want that to happen again."
The next two days shifted the course of the season dramatically.
"Practices changed, the way we prepare for games since that day has changed," Fagan said. "And they've just bought in right now. It's really fun to be a part of."
It started with a pair of wins against Crestview and was followed by a sweep of Pleasant where Galion outscored its opponents 20-4 in four games. Win five was a gutsy 11-6 final against state-ranked Northmor, then a pair of wins over River Valley brought the streak to seven.
"They started playing for each other," Fagan said. "We stopped being so selfish, we stopped looking at stats, we stopped talking about numbers. We come out every night and have a good team at bats. We play for each other.
"We call it the triple option of high school baseball — we want to bunt, we want to run, we want to steal — and they've all bought into that at the same time. I think that's really leading to a lot of the success we're having."
After trailing by seven after two innings at Fredericktown, the Tigers tied the game in the seventh and proceeded to score nine runs in the ninth for a 17-9 win — the team had 24 hits that night. A comeback against Marion Harding on Tuesday pushed it to nine straight, and a convincing 11-4 win at Marion brings the Tigers to 15-5 on the year.
"We were just talking about their resiliency," Fagan said after Tuesday's game against Harding. "We're a cockroach, we just won't go away. It's fun to be a part of, there's no heads hanging, they come to ball every night."
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A key contributor to this run has been senior Kael Longwell who was batting .208 on the season through the first 10 games. Six games later? That has improved to .389 and was above .400 a few times during this win streak.
Over the last half-dozen games he is batting .533 with 10 runs, nine RBIs and five stolen bases.
"He's raised his batting average like .200 points in the last two weeks," Fagan said. "And he knows how important he is down there in the middle of the lineup. He's not down there because he can't hit, we know that he can produce runs down there and he gets us rolling a lot of the time."
Longwell has just been going with the flow during this hot streak.
"I don't want to jinx it, but I've just been looking for fastballs and going backside, and it's been working for me," he said. "We've been playing good and we've just been putting the ball and letting things happen for us."
The emergence of Grady Crim on the mound has been instrumental to the team's success, too. He is 4-0 on the season with five starts and seven appearances, tossing 32⅔ innings with 20 strikeouts.
"We threw Grady to the wolves there, and he's done a heck of a job," Fagan said. "But whenever we call on a guy and they come out, they throw strikes, and the defense plays behind the. It seems to all be working right now."
Five different pitchers have double-digit strikeouts this season, with Longwell and Nate McMullen close to making it seven. And on offense, four are hitting above .300 with two more at .260 or better. During the 10-game win streak the Tigers have collectively outscored opponents 84-31 and are averaging 10.4 hits per game.
"We all play travel ball, we're all close and know each other," Longwell said. "We've just been getting hot at the right time."
Galion closes out the regular season with a series against MOAC rival Shelby and a pair of nonleague games at Bellevue and home against Columbian before opening tournament play on May 17 hosting Upper Sandusky.
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This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Galion baseball leans on selflessness during 10-game win streak
