Baseball: Bellbrook beats Monroe to win outright SWBL Southwestern title
Bellbrook coach Jon Venters stood in the cold Thursday night trying to warm up after his players dumped a water jug over his head along the third-base line. The celebration was fitting for a Bellbrook team that completed one of the biggest turnarounds in the Southwestern Buckeye League this spring. After finishing fourth in the SWBL Southwestern Division last season, the Golden Eagles clinched the outright division championship with a 7-3 victory over Monroe.
The Golden Eagles have won 14 straight games and improved to 18-2 overall and 9-0 in league play. Bellbrook, which won back-to-back league titles in 2022 and 2023, completed a dramatic turnaround after Monroe, Ross and Edgewood shared the division crown a season ago. “We worked hard all winter,” Venters said.
“We had a lot of guys that really worked and competed. We were coming off a couple not-up-to-par years for us. We had a lot of hungry guys competing for a lot of positions.
“That competition that started in the offseason just rolled into the season. Guys continue to compete every day. Baseball is hard.
It’s easy to take a day off, so sticking with it every day and competing every day has been huge for us. ” Monroe (13-4, 5-2 SWBL Southwestern) jumped in front early when Jayden Hounchell delivered a two-run single in the first inning. Bellbrook answered in the second when Levi Yoder ripped a game-tying two-run double.