ORAN --Reaching the Class 1 quarterfinal round has become so routine for the Oran Eagles baseball team that there isn't much celebration in reaching it.
Following Wednesday afternoon's dominating 14-4, 5-inning run-rule victory against Cooter in the sectional round at Oran High School, the Eagles simply exchanged a few high-fives and calmly lined up to shake hands with the Wildcats.
Oran (24-4) will play at Saxony Lutheran (14-6) tomorrow. The Crusaders defeated Thayer 14-6 in their sectional game.
Oran has now reached the quarterfinal round four of the last five years -- they've won the quarterfinal game each time.
"I kind of like that they aren't super-excited," said Oran coach Mitch Wood. "They didn't play very well today and they know that. Hopefully we'll be ready to play Friday. We've been there before -- we shouldn't get shaken."
The Eagles never trailed in Wednesday's game, but the Wildcats were never truly out of it until the fourth and fifth innings.
Playing as the home team by virtue of a coin toss, Cooter (15-12) had cut the Oran lead to 8-4 in the bottom of the third inning and appeared to be on the verge of pushing the game the full seven innings.
But Oran responded with three runs in the top of the fourth and three more in the fifth to enforce the 10-run rule.
"Every time they scored today we answered and that's what we have to continue to do," said Wood. "(Cooter) swings the bats. We knew that coming in. That's the thing about (Austin) Dumey, you can usually hit him, but usually we play a little better defense. They found the holes, I'm not going to take anything away from them."
Cooter didn't help themselves much on the defensive side, committing four errors in the game and tossing four wild pitches.
Cooter coach Allen Crawford said it's been a problem all season.
"Our defense didn't hold up -- with a team like Oran, you can't give them extra outs," said Crawford. "That's been our nemesis all year. Out of our 12 losses, seven or eight of them we had three or four errors. We've played several teams like Oran and they'll beat you when you do that. They've got a nice team and they hit the ball real well."
The Eagles pounded out 11 hits, including three home runs in the game.
The Eagle defense didn't commit any errors, but Cooter's hitters were locked in on the Oran pitchers for most of the game, collecting eight hits of their own.
"We thought we could score some runs on them, and we did," said Crawford. "We had a chance to get several more. Credit them, they didn't make the errors. They made plays."
Oran got on the board in the top of the first on Dumey's RBI-single. Tyler Beardslee added a sacrifice fly to take a 2-0 lead.
The Eagles extended the lead to 5-0 in the second inning highlighted by Caleb Seyer's two-run home run over the left centerfield fence.
Cooter broke the shutout with Corey Hinklin's fielder's choice-RBI to make it 5-1.
Oran made it 8-1 in the third.
Joey Williams hit a two-run homer that appeared to be a tall flyball at first, but it kept carrying eventually over the 330-foot sign in left centerfield.
"The ball was carrying well today -- I can't complain," said Wood. "We can make a few errors and our pitching not be very good if we can continue to hit the ball like this."
Cooter tacked on three runs in the bottom of the third to chase Dumey from the hill.
Brandon Neal and Hinklin each had RBI-singles and Jeremy McCaig scored on a wild pitch.
Paul Bucher then entered the game in relief of Dumey.
Bucher finished the final 2 1/3 innings, allowing just one hit with no runs and two strikeouts.
Dumey picked up the win in 2 2/3 innings, allowing seven hits and four runs with three strikeouts and three walks.
"Our pitching and defense didn't do as well as I thought it would," said Wood. "Bucher did a nice job of coming in relief and shutting them down. Dumey was just all around the plate today. He just couldn't find it. But hey, I've seen where kids have thrown bad for two or three innings and then they come out the next game throw five or six great innings. It may be a blessing in disguise before it's over with."
Oran broke the game open in the fourth and fifth innings. Bucher had a two-
run double to highlight the inning.
Chase Seyer hit a solo home run that easily cleared the right field fence, landing in the tree line beyond.
Chris Asmus' two-run single brought in the two decisive runs for the 10-run mark.
Caleb Seyer went 3-3 with four RBIs and two runs. Beardslee went 1-3 with two runs and an RBI.
Williams scored three runs. Bucher went 1-2 with three runs.
Alex Chasteen went 2-4 with a run and a double.
Hinklin led Cooter with two hits and two RBIs. Neal added two runs scored.
Aaron McCaig was saddled with the loss for Cooter, throwing 2-plus innings. Andreas Gonzalez and Chris Littleton all pitched in relief but didn't fare much better.
Gonzalez lasted just 1 1/3 innings. Littleton closed out the final 1 2/3 innings.
"If they make a few plays right there, this is an interesting game because we may not get those big hits afterwards," said Wood. "Besides that, they brought three or four kids in and we just kept hitting the baseball."