ELIDA, Ohio — For one to be a master, it requires study.

Coldwater’s Mason Welsch has spent the season studying his baseball opponents. That effort helped him to earn the Midwest Athletic Conference player of the year award.

So when Welsch came to the plate Friday in the Division V regional final with two on and an out in a game tied at 3, those studies paid off.

Welsch had faced Ottawa Hills ace Colin Hennessey three times already in the game, striking out once, flying out, and hitting into a fielder’s choice. But the common thing among all of those at-bats: he never swung at the first pitch. The other common factor: Hennessey always started with a fastball.

This time Welsch wasn’t holding back, and he aced the exam, launching the first offering from Hennessey to the left-center wall,

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