'We're Ready to Go.' Indian Hill Baseball Draws Inspiration from Soccer Team in Title Quest

Baseball 6/12/2025 12:00:00 AM By James Weber / Cincinnati Enquirer

'We're Ready to Go.' Indian Hill Baseball Draws Inspiration from Soccer Team in Title Quest

The players on the Indian Hill baseball team have been getting advice lately from their friends on the school's boys soccer team, which won its first state championship last fall.

The baseball Braves have a chance to win a title of their own this weekend in northeast Ohio. Indian Hill plays in the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division IV state semifinals Friday night, June 13, two wins from a title.

"It would mean a lot," said junior Ashton Graham. "I've been talking to a bunch of the soccer guys telling me how fun it was for them and what we can do to help prepare us as best as we can. We've only been to the state final four a couple times in the history of our baseball team, never won. So I think it would be huge for our school to win one finally."

The Braves, 23-8 overall, play Sandusky Perkins in the semifinals 7 p.m. Friday at Thurman Munson Memorial Stadium in Canton. A win puts them in the state championship game at Akron's Canal Park at 10 a.m. Sunday.

"We're excited," said sophomore Dylan Hartman. "We pick each other up every single game. When one of us goes down, there's always someone to fill in and as a team, I just think we're ready to go."

The Braves have a young team with a lot of juniors in the lineup. Sophomore Devlan Daniel leads the way after being named Southwest district player of the year in DIV and the Cincinnati Hills League Player of the Year.

Daniel, a top football prospect as well, is hitting .559 with six home runs, 11 doubles, eight triples, 43 RBIs and 46 runs scored. He also plays shortstop and has pitched 31 innings, striking out 47, compiling a 4-1 record with a 3.54 ERA.

"We've had some stumbles, but I think we picked it up towards the back end of the season where it matters," Daniel said.

Junior Jimmy Liebel is the ace on the mound with a 6-2 record and 1.20 ERA. He got the win against top-ranked Jonathan Alder in the regional final, allowing three hits and one run in six innings.

Graham hits .404 with 40 runs scored and 26 RBIs. Liebel bats .434.

"Jimmy Liebel's been a rock for us on the mound all year long," said Indian Hill head coach Cary Daniel, Devlan's father. "He wants the ball in his hands, and without him we're not at this point."

Graham and Liebel were first team all-CHL picks and also all-district selections. Sophomore Hartman and juniors Luke Egnaczyk and Sam Vigran were second team all-CHL. Noah Coffman and Brady Drost were honorable mention all-league.

Coffman pitched 2.2 innings against Fenwick in the Braves' extra-inning win in the regional semifinal. Drost and Egnaczyk each drove in three runs in the regional final. Junior Aidan Kincaid threw his first inning of the season to shut out top-ranked Alder in that game.

"Guys that haven't been able to play, we make some adjustments and then all of a sudden they find themselves in the order and they're not going away from it or going in afraid," Devlan Daniel said. "They're coming in and they're ready to go."

Coach Daniel said the team has hit its stride after he put Devlan in the leadoff spot and Graham in the second spot, then put Graham in center field and Devlan at shortstop to shore up some defensive issues the team has been having.

It's part of the growing pains the team has had with one senior, Trevor Brown in the lineup.

"Over the last two years, we've had a couple of guys that are juniors who played since they were freshmen," Cary Daniel said. "We had three freshmen play last year, which really gave these guys a lot of varsity experience early. So yes, we're still young but we've got five or six guys that have a good amount of varsity experience and they've been able to lead this team by example."

The potential championship game opponents are Chillicothe Unioto and Mentor Lake Catholic at Canal Park, which is the minor-league home of the Akron RubberDucks.

Unioto is ranked seventh in DIV in the final state coaches poll, and Lake Catholic ninth. Perkins is unranked, and Indian Hill beat top-ranked Jonathan Alder in last week's regional final.

Indian Hill has played a tough schedule with some bigger Cincinnati programs.

"We play some really good teams with some really good pitching to help us get ready for tournaments," Cary Daniel said. "They mean a whole lot to us, we try to win them, but at the same time, we know that it's just preparing us for the run in the tournament. We just got to play the game of baseball. And if we play the game of baseball, we pitch well, we play defense and we take good swings, we'll be all right."

And taking some advice from their championship-winning friends. One of the biggest tips was playing together as one family.

"You saw it with the soccer team," Devlan Daniel said. "All those guys were best friends, and that's what we are. I feel like we're all great friends and that helps with how we've been going into this tournament."

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