Circleville, OH - The Grace Tigers traveled to the campus of Ohio CHristian University for the 2026 NCCAA Mideast Regional Tournament in hopes of moving on, and made a strong push for it. Grace entered the tournament as the #3 seed overall out of 4 teams.
The opening matchup saw the host school, #2 seeded Ohio Christian Trailblazers. The game did not start well for the Tigers, as they allowed a 7 spot to the Trailblazers in the first inning. Grace competed hard the rest of the game and scratched back, almost tying things up in the 9th inning, but ultimately falling short with bases loaded, losing the game by a final score of 4-8.
Evan Snyder threw 7.0 innings of 1 run ball to keep the Tigers in the game.
In the losers bracket now, Grace would face the #1 seed, Kentucky Christian University, who was upset the night before by #4 Alice Lloyd College. The Tigers came out hot, scoring in the first inning to go up 1-0. Senior Kaleb Blaskoski took the hill for the Tigers and it would be a start to remember for him, going the complete 9.0 innings on 134 total pitches with 8K's. There were several lead changes throughout the game, but Grace struck the final blow with 2 runs in the 8th inning to increase their lead to 6-3. Blaskowski slammed the door in the 9th to eliminate the Knights and allow Grace to survive another day.
Day 3 would prove to be a marathon for the Tigers, but it began with another elimination matchup between Grace and Alice Lloyd, the 9th time this season the two teams would face each other. The season series was tied 4-4 going into this game, so this would be the rubber match. The game was a dogfight from the start, with both teams hanging crooked numbers early on. Grace punched first, scoring 3 in the top of the first inning. However, the Eagles responded with 4 of their own in the second. The Tigers struck next with 5 in the 4th, led by a
Reagan Mutschler grand slam. Alice Lloyd was down but not out, as they climbed back to take a one run lead, 12-11 after the 7th inning. Who would the Tigers turn to other than
Kaleb Blaskowski one more time, to give whatever last ounce of fight he had. Blaskowski held the Eagles to a 0 in the 8th to give the Tigers a chance in the 9th.
Gavin Kleidon opened the inning with a double over the right fielder's head. A few bunt singles later, the Tigers had bases loaded for
Damian Fernandez who delivered with a 2 run single to take the lead. Danny Wallington hit a sac fly, and senior
Eric Whiting put the final nail in the coffin with a single to bring in one last run to make it 15-12 Tigers. Blaskowski took it to the finish line and Grace would win by that score to advance to the program's first ever Regional Championship game.
The Regional Championship itself was a tough matchup again with Ohio Christian. The Tigers were simply out of gas by this point, and fell by a final score of 3-23 to wrap up their impressive run.
The 2026 season saw a lot of firsts, and records re-written for the program. The Tigers finished with the most wins in a single season (27), finished above .500 for the first time, and made it to their first regional championship game. Many individual records were broken as well, and you can see those on our "History and Records" page on the website. There were also several Tigers who earned All-Region honors, as listed below:
First Team:
Moises Lerma,
Gavin Kleidon,
Reagan Mutschler,
Kaleb Blaskowski
Second Team:
Dylan Thomas
Third Team:
Ben Anderson,
Parker Curell
Gold Glove Winners:
Dale Westphal, Danny Wallington
Grace will look to improve upon their success next year again as they continue to build, completing year 5 and heading into year 6 of the program.
