Warriors in district final

West Branch center fielder Gavin Bell makes a diving catch against NDCL on Monday. (Morning Journal/Ron Firth)

LOUISVILLE — For West Branch, it was an evening for a double baseball celebration.

The Warriors set an all-time single-season record for wins and also won their first district semifinal game in 14 years by edging NDCL 1-0 Monday evening at Louisville’s Andy Aljancic Field.

“It’s been a long time,” said West Branch coach Rick Mulinix whose team lost a heartbreaking 1-0 decision to Hubbard in the district semifinal last season. “Last year against Hubbard we had 12 baserunners and they had two and we just couldn’t get that key hit, and today we got the key hit.”

The triumph vaults the third-seeded Warriors (22-6) into Wednesday’s Division II district championship game against 11th-seeded Geneva, which eliminated Salem 5-2 in the first half of Monday’s district doubleheader.

The Warrior coach praised his team for setting the all-time school record for wins in a season,

“That’s a record for West Branch,” said Mulinix. “That’s the most wins ever, especially with the schedule we have. It’s a special group of kids.”

West Branch junior standout Boston Mulinix was the offensive hero of the day for the Warriors in a low-scoring pitchers’ duel in which runs were hard to come by.

With the score tied at 0-0 through 4 1/2 innings, West Branch and Mulinix made the most of their scoring opportunity in the bottom of the fifth inning. With one out, Warrior senior Jaxon Robb legged out a bunt single down the third base line. Robb then stole second and moved to third on a sacrifice fly ball out by Gavin Bell.

It set the stage for Boston Mulinix, who stepped to the plate and hit a ringing RBI double to right, scoring Robb with what turned out to be the only run in the game.

“If you followed us for a while, you know I haven’t been the hottest guy at the plate,” said Boston Mulinix, who saved the best for the postseason. “I was just plugging away and was just trying to help us win. No matter what the sport in clutch situations, I just feel got to keep a low heartbeat and do what I can to get it done.”

“His confidence has been shaken a little bit the last two weeks,” said Rick Mulinix of his talented son. “Fortunately, he’s a good hitter and Coach Craven actually said I see one thing you’re doing and I don’t know if that’s what it was, but you know what, he squared it up good. I hope he wanted up in that situation, I hope all of our kids wanted to be in that situation and today it was him, and hopefully we can continue that on Wednesday.”

Boston Mulinix talked of his mindset on his game-winning RBI double.

“It was a 2-1 count, so I was thinking, he’s going to throw a fastball because he didn’t want to fall behind 3-1 and it was a fastball up in the zone and I didn’t miss it,” he explained. “I knew it was going to be a hit, for sure. Baseball is a streaky sport, and once one guy gets on, everybody kind of does.”

Mulinix is part of a multi-talented junior class that has dominated in many sports at all levels at West Branch.

“We’ve had the same group of kids playing together since we were 8 years old,” he said. “I didn’t expect anything less. We’ve kind of grown the standard at West Branch in every sport where winning is the standard.”

Senior star pitcher Beau Alazaus, who tossed a complete-game one-hitter, then retired six of the final seven batters he faced to win the game. Alazaus finished with seven strikeouts and walked just one.

“He (Alazaus) was outstanding,” said the NDCL coach Marc Thibeault. “He dialed up a couple 3-2 counts where it could have gone the other way and he came up with a big pitch. He was magical today.”

Leading West Branch’s six-hit offense were Hunter Shields with a double and a single, Mulinix with an RBI double and Anthony Perry, Jaxon Robb and Aaron Tucker with singles.

NDCL, which plays in the Crown Conference, ends its season with a 12-10 record.

NDCL starting pitcher Braeden Kinnaird absorbed the setback. He pitched five innings with five strikeouts and no walks. Robby Nahra worked one inning of scoreless relief for the Lions.

“First off, you have to credit both arms (Alazaus and Kinnaird), they both did a great job,” said Thibeault. “And their guy got through our lineup three times. Seniors take you as far as you’re going to go, especially with postseason baseball.”

Boston Mulinix was also thrilled to see West Branch, which defeated some big school powers this season such as Federal League champ Jackson, set the all-time single-season wins record with their 22nd triumph.

“We’ve been kind of expecting this for a while, waiting on this year,” he said.

Rick Mulinix sized up the Warriors’ district final opponent, Geneva.

“They’re a good team, we got to watch them play and we’ll probably see another lefty, so it was good that we got to see him (the left-handed Kinnaird) today.

“We’re capable of being a team that can score a lot of runs and hopefully (this win) clicks and we talked about that as being contagious,” continued the Warriors’ coach. “One guy gets a hit and you saw what happened after that, we got a couple more hits back-to-back. Hopefully we carry that over to Wednesday.”

Mulinix said Anthony Perry will be on the hill for the Warriors in the district title game.

NDCL: 0-0-0-0-0-0-0 –0-1-1

WB: 0-0-0-0-1-0-0 –1-6-2

WEST BRANCH–Beau Alazaus, WP 7 IP, 7K, 1BB) and Hunter Shields.

NDCL–Braeden Kinnaird (LP, 5 IP, 5K, 0 BB), Robby Nahra (1 IP, 1K, 0 BB and Cian O’Boyle