CHILLICOTHE, Ohio -- Shawnee State head coach Rob Ehlers and Indiana-Southeast head coach Brett Netterdorf are good friends who certainly share a love and appreciation for the game of baseball.
Their two programs have also been a part of dandy and close-knit contests in the duo's first two seasons at their respective programs.
In Friday afternoon's River States Conference Baseball Championship Tournament contest, however, Shawnee State wasn't to be denied.
Trailing by a 2-0 margin after the opening inning of work, Shawnee State designated hitter/outfielder Zach Gaspar completely flipped the script with one swing of the bat, jacking a three-run homer to right field to begin a scoring spree where the Bears collected seven out of the next eight runs.
A pesky unit who has a history of coming back from lengthy deficits as evidenced by last season's 12-run ninth-inning, allowing Indiana-Southeast to defeat Indiana Tech, 14-12, in an NAIA Opening Round contest, the Grenadiers loaded the bases in the seventh inning -- but Shawnee State sophomore Carson Wireman, on to pitch in relief of Jakobe Reese, slammed the door on IU-Southeast without allowing a run as No. 3-seeded Shawnee State ultimately claimed a victory over No. 2-seeded Indiana-Southeast to win its 11th straight game and move one step closer to a potential River States Conference Championship Series berth with a 7-3 triumph at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe.
Game Summary/Significance of win
Shawnee State, who improved to 29-14 in 2025 with its 11th consecutive win, scored its highest-ranked victory of the Ehlers era Friday evening with its win over Indiana-Southeast (30-15), who came into the contest as the No. 18-ranked unit in the NAIA. It marks Ehlers' third victory over an NAIA National Top 25-ranked opponent at Shawnee State, the other two coming against No. 25 Concordia (Mich.) in February 2024.
The Bears and the Grenadiers each posted 11 hits team-wise, but Shawnee State left just five runners on base while Indiana-Southeast left a dozen Grenadiers out in the pond as Reese and Wireman each pitched effectively in tight spots. Reese, a Third-Team All-RSC selection as announced by conference officials Friday morning, moved to 5-0 on the year in his decisions by throwing a six-hitter in six innings of work, while Wireman, despite giving up five hits, didn't allow an Indiana-Southeast runner to come across the plate over the final three frames.
With Shawnee State's victory Friday evening, the Bears will advance to play No. 1-seeded Oakland City, the lone remaining undefeated team in the River States Conference Baseball Championship Tournament in the double-elimination format, Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. in a schedule that has been adjusted due to inclement weather throughout the tournament.
If Shawnee State is able to defeat Oakland City, the Bears will match its own program record with 12 consecutive victories and advance to the River States Conference Championship Series in one fell swoop, where Shawnee State could then set the record and clinch the RSC Tournament title while locking in a postseason bid.
Bears thriving and jiving at VA
Despite a double by Indiana-Southeast three-hole hitter Ethan Burdette and a two-out, two-run home run by the Grenadiers' Hazel Martinez in the opening frame that put IU-Southeast ahead by a 2-0 margin after the opening frame of action, Shawnee State completely erased that deficit in a hurry.
A dependable glove and bat at third base all season long, Mason Reid began the top half of the second frame with a leadoff double to left center, and a hit batter, along with a well-placed sacrifice bunt by Jace Parnin, put Reid and Hunter Warner into scoring position at second and third base with just one gone in the top half of the second inning.
Then, Zach Gaspar came up to the plate. A left-handed hitter, Gaspar turned on a pitch from Indiana-Southeast's Eli Laurent and knew the ball was heading out of the yard from the moment the Strongsville, Ohio product connected on the pitch, as the newly minted Third-Team All-RSC honoree's three-run bomb immediately turned a 2-0 Shawnee State deficit into a 3-2 Shawnee State advantage.
Indiana-Southeast loaded the bases with two gone in the bottom of the second inning on Jakobe Reese, but after giving up a single, hitting a batter and walking a IU-Southeast player, Reese forced Martinez into an innocent groundout to get out of the second inning unscathed.
Following Gaspar's big fly in the second inning, Mendoza then followed with another power swing of his own -- as the catcher launched his team-leading 12th homer of the year with a two-run solo bomb to right field to give Shawnee State a 4-2 lead heading into the bottom of the third, which held through three frames as Reese, after giving up a leadoff single, forced a flyout and a 5-4-3 double play to get out of the inning with no trouble.
Shawnee State kept the throttle on the floorboard offensively, as in the top half of the fourth inning, the Bears made two-out magic happen as a single by Gaspar, a walk by Wyatt Haupt, and a walk by Tyler Lund loaded the bases for leadoff hitter Nolan Tressler, who lined a two-RBI base knock to center to increase the SSU advantage to a 6-2 count after four innings complete.
Ever the scrappy bunch, Indiana-Southeast didn't go away.
In the seventh inning, Coulter Hamilton's leadoff home run and a walk by Logan Murphy cut Shawnee State's lead to a 7-3 count and put a runner on base with nobody out in the top half of the seventh -- leading to Reese turning the ball over to Carson Wireman in a pitching change. Wireman gave up a single to Burdette and a walk to Martinez, but tightroped out of potential trouble by forcing a line out, striking out Logan Beard, and forcing a 5-4 fielder's choice to again force IU-Southeast to come away empty.
That sequence proved to add momentum to the top of the eighth for the Bears, who struck again as Parnin's one-out triple to right field brought up the man of the day -- Gaspar -- in another run-producing situation. The veteran talent did just that, bringing Parnin with a base knock to right to run the score to a 7-3 margin, fittingly accomplishing his 100th career hit in the process of doing so.
Still, Shawnee State had to thwart one final Indiana-Southeast rally.
The Grenadiers' first two batters of the ninth -- Nolan Bowser and Burdette -- each reached via singles, but a five-unassisted fielder's choice and a flyout to center field put Wireman within one out from shutting the door. Preston Shelton posted a single to jack the bases up with two gone, but Wireman stayed in the game mentally and forced another flyout to center to seal the final result in the 7-3 triumph.
Additional
For the contest, Gaspar (3-for-4, home run, four RBI, two runs scored), Tressler (2-for-5, two RBI) and Eli Jones (2-for-5) posted multi-hit outings while Mendoza (1-for-5, home run, RBI, run scored), Reid (1-for-4, double, run scored), Parnin (1-for-3, triple, run scored) and Lund (1-for-3, walk) all reached the hit column in Friday's win.
Shawnee State is scheduled to go after its 30th win of the year Saturday afternoon when the Bears take on No. 1-seeded Oakland City (37-13) at 2 p.m. at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe. The contest can be seen live at portal.stretchinternet.com/rsc.
