The Butler High School baseball team is the top team in the latest Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association Division III state poll.
Kenton Ridge is No. 1 in the state poll for the first time since earning the top ranking during both the 2004 and 2005 seasons.
A year ago, the Cougars advanced to the D-II state tournament, falling to eventual state champion Canfield in a semifinal game. They dropped to D-IV this season after the OHSAA expanded the baseball and softball postseason tournaments to seven divisions.
Kenton Ridge is 12-0 and 7-0 in the Central Buckeye Conference. It has won nine games by 10 or more runs.
“I definitely think that there’s a lot of great competition out there,” Cougars coach Sarah Schalnat said. “We gave ourselves a tough schedule. Hopefully, we can get through that schedule, learn a lot about ourselves and continue to play as a team. I’m proud of the girls.”
The ranking is the first for Schalnat, a 1998 Kenton Ridge grad who played for former coach Ed Foulk. She took over the program in 2010.
“I told them that it makes the target on our back bigger,” Schalnat said. “Everybody is going to want to beat Kenton Ridge. We’ve got to play our A-game every day.”
The Cougars beat D-IV seventh-ranked Benjamin Logan 10-0 on Thursday night in a Central Buckeye Conference game. Another CBC squad, London, is ranked No. 9 in D-IV.
Other area teams ranked in the state softball poll include:
• Division I: No. 7 Lebanon.
• Division III: No. 3 Greenville; and No. 5 Tippecanoe.
• Division V: No. 9 Miami East.
• Division VI: No. 3 Tri-Village; and No. 5 Minster.
Baseball
Butler is ranked No. 1 in a loaded D-III. Five Dayton-area teams are in the top-25. The Aviators are 10-0 overall, including a 7-6 victory last week over D-I 14th-ranked Springboro.
Butler’s Miami Valley League rival Tippecanoe, also undefeated at 10-0, is ranked No. 2. Butler and Tipp will play on May 7 and 9.
Last year’s D-II state runner-up Badin is ranked No. 3 in D-III. The Rams’ Greater Catholic League rival Chaminade-Julienne is ranked No. 17. Kenton Ridge also received a vote in the state poll.
Other area teams ranked in the state baseball poll include:
• D-I: No. 9 Beavercreek; No. 10 Lakota West; No. 14 Springboro; No. 18 Lebanon; and No. 20 Centerville.
• D-II: No. 17 Fairborn.
• D-VI: No. 6 Mechanicsburg; St. Henry, Troy Christian and Legacy Christian also received votes.
• D-V: No. 4 Coldwater; and No. 20 Versailles.
D-VII: No. 1 Minster; No. 2 Newton; No. 5 Russia; No. 9 Fort Loramie; and No. 19 Lehman Catholic.
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