Not too often do you see a pitching duel between two of the best starting pitchers in Ohio. But that is what the fans received at Baldwin Wallace University between Saint Ignatius’ Connor Adams, a Louisville recruit, and Kyle Nicolas of Jackson, a Ball State recruit.

For six full innings of baseball in Berea, Adams and Nicolas battled against each other and kept the game scoreless between two of Ohio’s powerhouses.

Pitching in his third start of the season, Adams had a huge challenge facing a Polar Bears lineup that has notched five or more runs in its first five games. Jackson entered the game undefeated at 5-0. But Adams took the challenge and proved the doubters wrong. After walking two in a row in the first inning, he settled down and was in lockdown mode.

The senior struck out two in the second sitting down three straight Bears. He did the same in the third and in the fourth innings. Jackson did not record its first hit of the game until the fifth inning when Tyler Wright singled into right center, but Adams struck out three batters in that inning to stop a possible offensive opportunity for Jackson.

The final inning for Adams came in the sixth, and it looked like the Polar Bears, ranked No. 1 in the Prep Baseball Report Division 1 Rankings, might strike first. After a Cade Mottice flyout, Dillon Dingler, an Ohio State recruit, singled to right. The next at bat, Dingler stole second and got himself into scoring position. But Adams buckled down and struck out Jake Mottice and then got Kyle Burke to ground out to stop the Jackson threat.

Kyle Nicolas had a near identical outing to Adams. Nicolas sat down the first six batters he faced until Mark Geraci got the game’s first hit in the third inning. However, Nicolas got Tom Grosel and Seth Warren to flyout, and struck out Joe Gutbrod. Nicolas then retired the next nine Wildcats he faced to keep the score knotted at 0-0.  

Adams finished the day with six innings pitched, giving up two hits, striking out 11, walking just one, and not giving up a run. Of the 87 pitches he threw, 61 were strikes and of the 22 batters he faced, he threw 17 first pitch strikes. For Nicolas, he tallied six innings of scoreless baseball, giving up 2 hits, striking out 10, and not walking a batter. Of his 88 pitches, 59 were strikes, 14 of which were first pitch strikes to his 20 batters faced. Bottom line, it was a phenomenal pitching duel to watch.

But the game wasn’t over after six innings. It was still scoreless after Adams and Nicolas left. For the Wildcats, Jack Eyink came on and did just as well. For Jackson, Ben Warren came on and got the job done, too, sending the game to extras.

Eyink had to get out of some tough situations, especially in extra innings. After Eyink’s one-two-three seventh inning, the Polar Bears got two on with two outs in the top of the eighth. This marked Jackson’s first momentum swing, but Eyink then got Jake Mottice to flyout to Grosel to end the away half of the inning.

Then in the ninth, it was a similar situation for Eyink. Burke drew a leadoff walk, and then stole second to get into scoring position. After Eyink sat down the next two batters, Trey Wright drew a walk as well to put two on with two out. But again, Eyink got out of it after Hunter Brios grounded out to end the inning.

Saint Ignatius couldn’t get anything offensively going in extra innings, either. Relief pitcher Ben Warren came on and he had good stuff for the Polar Bears. After Jeff Chonko singled in the seventh, and Jack Eyink got on with a one-out single, Warren struck out a pair of Wildcats. Warren then held Saint Ignatius in check in the bottom of the eighth, and also in the ninth. After that came the game-deciding tenth inning.

Eyink left the game in the tenth inning, and on came Evan Steigerwald. But things did not go as well for the senior. Jackson worked the bases loaded and tacked on two runs in the top of the tenth in what ended up being the game’s only runs after the Wildcats could not score in the bottom frame.

After over two and a half hours of baseball, with the game ending nearly at the same time as the Cleveland Indians home opener, Jackson came out on top, 2-0, over the Wildcats. It was not the outcome the Wildcats may have wanted, but this could be a game they look back on and learn so much from.

Saint Ignatius falls to 2-4 on the season while Jackson remains unbeaten. The Wildcats will look to get back to their winning ways on Holy Thursday, welcoming St. Vincent-St. Mary to Berea. Then the Wildcats will face Strongsville District rival Strongsville on Holy Saturday at Baldwin Wallace’s Fisher Field. That game will be a rematch of last season’s District Semifinal, which the Wildcats won 3-0.

SIBN: The Saint Ignatius Broadcast Network will have broadcast the Strongsville game live to end this week.