'We're all just buying into the grittiness of it': Mogadore baseball shows no panic

MOGADORE — Baseball is a game of breaks and persisting through the bad ones.

Through three innings at Mogadore's Les Stoffer Field Thursday, the breaks weren't going the Wildcats' way.

Mogadore made plenty of hard contact, but to no avail.

Wildcats pitcher Jude Thiry was in complete control, with the exception of an 0-2 pitch that Rootstown third baseman Tony Karp hammered over the wall. It wasn't even a bad pitch — it was arguably above the strike zone — but one of the best hitters in Portage County blasted it.

Despite doing a ton of good, Thiry and the Wildcats trailed 1-0 after three.

There was no panic. Thiry kept firing strikes. The defense remained clean.

And the Wildcats' hits finally found grass in the fourth for a 6-2 win and a series sweep of the Rovers. That is what good teams do, and Mogadore is rapidly proving to be among the area's better ones, including an extra-inning upset of Warren JFK on Tuesday.

"I think we're all just buying into the grittiness of it," Wildcats senior Ronnie Skye said. "It's hard to stay in baseball once you get down, so we're just trying to stay in it as much as we can and just be some dogs."

How Mogadore fought through hard luck Thursday

Skye chaffed a bit at the corniness of "be some dogs," the moment he said it.

But there's truth to it. Baseball is very much about doggedness.

Through three innings, the Wildcats did a lot of good things at the plate. They got ahead in counts. They attacked once ahead. They hit the ball on the nose. They were also scoreless and trailing after Karp's homer.

Some teams press when they fall behind. Mogadore didn't.

"These guys are building confidence," Wildcats coach Chris Williams said. "They're seeing the ball well out of the pitcher's hand, making contact and hitting our pitches instead of hitting their pitches and attacking early, so I don't think there was any panic at all and they knew we were making contact. They just knew they eventually were going to drop."

Their swings never changed, but their luck did.

Mogadore first baseman Tanner Buso led off the fourth inning with an opposite-field liner that sliced just out of the reach of the right fielder for a triple. After third baseman Cole Reese was hit by a pitch, Graham boomed a two-run double deep over the left fielder.

"I surprised myself, honestly," Graham said. "My coach was telling me to get out in front of it, so I got out in front of it, [got] turned on it good. It was a good hit, probably [the] best hit of my career, honestly."

And then, an inning later, Graham surely made Williams happy with a successful squeeze bunt.

"We had been leaving runners on all day there," Graham said. "We were just leaving them on the pond, so Coach wanted me to get a bunt down and get some runners in to secure the lead and get a win, so I got it down for him."

Mogadore's Chris Williams a new leader with a similar approach

Speaking of Williams, the Wildcats have a new man in charge now but, truth be told, not much has changed at Les Stoffer Field.

Williams, in his first year at the helm, was an assistant the past few seasons, providing plenty of continuity.

"We know Coach Williams knows what he's doing," Graham said. "We had him last year and the year before. We were successful with him and Coach [Matt] Dillon my sophomore year, so, I mean, we got confidence in him and we believe in him."

Williams said he has always seen the game in a similar lens as Dillon, the Wildcats' previous coach.

"I don't think we've changed much," Williams said. "Matt and I had the same approach. We wanted to attack pitches when we could. We wanted our pitchers [to] throw to contact and let our [team] play solid defense behind us."

It's not like much needed changing either.

Mogadore was one of the shining stars of the 2022 season, going 8-2 in the Portage Trail Conference. Skye, then just a sophomore, sparkled as the team's newfound ace; the Wildcats broke a long losing streak against a Rovers team that had dominated the league for years; and Mogadore nearly took out top-seeded Hillsdale in the district semifinals.

Last year was a little tougher.

Skye missed the entire season with a herniated disc in his back and the Wildcats were left to face an improved PTC without him, as Lake Center and Warren JFK both fielded dominant teams a year ago.

The Eagles and Tigers haven't gone anywhere. LCC has won its first 12 games and looks as dangerous as ever.

Then again, so does Mogadore.

When your third pitcher looks as good as Thiry did in tossing a three-hitter Thursday, that says something.

When your six-hitter leads the team in RBIs, as Graham did, and your eight-hitter delivers a huge hit, as Tyler Pendergast did, that says something.

When a guy who didn't even play Thursday, Jake Hopkins, led the way Tuesday against the Eagles with three hits, that says something.

Yes, these Wildcats are deep.

They're good.

And they're back.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: New coach, similar approach for Mogadore High School baseball