Athlete of the Week is Andrew Badenhop of Eastwood High School

PEMBERVILLE, Ohio – Baseball Eastwood is a perfect 23-0 on the season and the No. 1 ranked team in the state in Division III.

With threats in their lineup, much of their success comes from junior Andrew Badenhop.

Leading the team with seven wins on the mound, he threw two no-hitters in wins over Perkins and Lake. In Wednesday’s win over Otsego, Badenhop threw a complete game shutout and gave up just three hits.

He is also batting over .400 on the season for the Eagles.

“Just pound the zone, throw a lot of strikes, be good at positioning, don’t get knocked down,” Budenhop said. “I have to give credit to my defense because I have a lot of confidence in them to do a really good job behind me. Just go there, try not to do too much, go there and of course have fun too. “

“When we give him the ball, we expect big things from him, but I want to go back to how tough he is,” Eastwood head coach Kevin Liddy said. “When he’s on the mound, he competes, and that’s one of the things we approach with our pitchers is if you can compete out there every day, not all of your pitches might be good, but you can give me your He’s a very, very tough kid, and we know when we give him the ball that he’s going to go deep into the game.”

If you’re undefeated and the No. 1 team in the state, you’ll have a target on your back. That’s something the Eagles are taking as they approach the postseason.

“Just go out there and take things one game at a time, don’t worry about the future too much,” Budenhop said. “Just go out there, have fun, do your thing and good things will happen.”

“We know going into every game we’re going to expect a better pitcher, a better hitter, we’re going to expect them to play their best game,” Liddy said. “We talk about three phases in baseball: pitching, hitting and defense. If we can get all three of them going, we think we have a chance to win at the end of the game.”