St. Joe loses to ace in the outfield in state baseball semifinal
6/1/2007COLUMBUS - Fort Loramie's Jordan Goldschmidt had St. Joseph Central Catholic batters perplexed and frustrated.
A future Division I pitcher with a gun of an arm will do that to you.
But there is a relevant footnote to yesterday's Division IV state semifinal: Jordan Goldschmidt never set foot in the pitcher's mound.
Goldschmidt shut down the Crimson Streaks from way out in center field in a 4-1 victory at Cooper Stadium.
St. Joe (23-8) ends its season at this juncture for the third time in school history, including 2004. Fort Loramie will play in tomorrow's final against Newark Catholic.
Seemingly no matter where the Streaks hit the ball or how hard they hit it, Goldschmidt, an Eastern Michigan signee, was there to track it down.
"He's got some wheels," said St. Joe senior Matt Kwiatkowski. "He covered a lot of ground out there tonight."
Andy Long, a soft-tossing left-hander, covered on the mound for Goldschmidt.
Long was not overpowering, and his change-up often landed short of the plate, but St. Joe managed only four hits, though the Redskins' defense helped in that regard.
"That's our team," Goldschmidt said. "We just play good defense behind our pitchers and just tell our guys to throw strikes, and when they hit it go get it."
Goldschmidt showed everyone in the second inning why he was not designated to the pitcher's mound yesterday.
Kwiatkowski hit a drive to right center, almost assuredly to be a double, but Goldschmidt sprinted and fully extended for a diving catch.
"I had one that was probably better than that this year, but that was a pretty good one," he said.
While St. Joe struggled to score, the Streaks didn't allow any runs until the fourth inning when everything came unglued for starter Cody Crockett.
Crockett allowed a leadoff single to University of Toledo signee Jared Hoying to start the inning before getting two outs.
Then Goldschmidt hit a one-hopper at Crockett's foot, and when Crockett turned the wrong way to field the ball, Hoying scored from third.
"I didn't even really see it come off the bat," Crockett said. "I just started looking around and it I couldn't find it anywhere. If I would have got it clean I think we would have had him out."
Tregg Barga followed with an RBI double down the first baseline, and Crockett left the game, because of a nasty bruise above his left ankle.
"I don't think I was throwing as hard after that ball hit me," Crockett said. "I was a little iffy on it."
Two more runs came around to score off St. Joe reliever Eric Gray.
The Streaks scored in the sixth inning when Grant Barbour hit a sacrifice fly to bring home Anthony Rusher, but Gray later stranded Darek Hilty on third to end the inning.
"Great season," Crockett said. "It was just fun getting here. It was a privilege to play here."
Contact Ryan Autullo at:
rautullo@theblade.com