Reaching a significant milestone in the history of a program is the matter of executing on the little things.
Those little things can be physical — such as fielding routine groundballs or grinding out productive at-bats.
They can be mental as well — in terms of showing persistence, sacrificing for a common goal and coming to the field with a positive attitude.
The 2026 Clay Panthers’ baseball program has either performed in all of those areas throughout the year or gotten progressively better in them daily.
It’s resulted in what is one of Clay’s best seasons to date, which has included a 20-6 overall record, a No. 5 state ranking and wins in 15 out of its last 18 games.
The latest win, an 8-5 triumph for Clay over the Racine Southern Tornadoes’ baseball program on Friday evening, was extra special.
Overcoming a 4-2 deficit after three innings of play, the Panthers hung a six-spot in the fourth frame of work and never trailed from that point onward en route to obtaining program victory No. 1,000 Friday evening in Rosemount.
The victory marked another goal checked off the list for Kylon Crabtree’s group, who entered the spring with the goal of checking off 1,000 wins on its mind after receiving helpful information from Clay baseball assistant coach and Clay Junior-Senior High history teacher Zack Fryman.
“It’s a wonderful feeling,” Crabtree said. “You can’t really describe how good it feels because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I truly had no idea about it until early in the season. My assistant coach, Zack Fryman, got into the history books and started going back, and once we added everything up, we realized how close we were to that milestone. That made the boys really push for that. They used that as some motivation, and set it as a goal, saying, ‘Hey, let’s go get 20 wins, and get 1,000 (program wins) this year.”
Now, Clay’s not only got 20 wins for the season and 1,000 wins in the history of the program, but has an opportunity to accomplish much more than that.
With its 20-win season in the bag, the 2026 Clay squad is just the fourth team in the history of the program, dating back to the start of baseball at Clay in 1940, that has won 20 games in a season, and the first since the 2019 Clay squad to accomplish the feat.
By winning its 20th game on Friday, Clay matched that 2019 team as well as the 1954 group for the second-most victories in a single-season in program history. Winning just one more game in 2026 would allow Clay to match the 1949 squad, a group coached by longtime head baseball coach Kinney Long, a 2004 Clay Hall of Fame inductee who won 408 games, 16 conference titles, and three district championships in his 30 seasons from 1940 to 1970.
Since Long’s retirement from the position following the 1970 season, Clay has remained competitive in the sport, and won district championships in 1987 under Dick McCleese and 2003 under Mark Robinson.
This season’s group could be on track to win a district title for the first time in 23 years.
During its 15 wins over an 18-game stretch, Clay has taken down state ranked foes in No. 2 OHSBCA Division VII Green (4-0) and No. 12 OHSBCA Division V Valley (7-6) on the road. The Panthers also defeated archrival Notre Dame by a 4-3 count in nine innings on April 24 at home.
“You don’t know what to expect early on in the year, but these guys have not disappointed and not let up since the beginning,” Crabtree said. “When you do have a young team, you have to let them go prove what they can do. We knew they had the capability, but they’ve proved it from Game 1. They have come out on a mission. They come out and play, they come out and compete, and it’s just a great group of boys to be around.”
As Clay has gone on its tear toward becoming one of the state’s most highly-respected units, the Panthers have garnered more respect in the process. The Panthers have won seven games by mercy rule since April 14, but have also gone 4-2 in games decided by three runs or less in the same span of time.
Clay’s only losses since April 14 are setbacks to OHSAA Division V foes Portsmouth (4-2) and Northwest (6-3) as well as a loss at OHSBCA No. 8 South Webster (11-2).
“You can’t really explain how that chemistry just grows among the team — it’s just something that you have to witness,” Crabtree said. “Witnessing it in person and seeing a group of kids that have different backgrounds and hobbies come together as one when they all step into not only our dugout, but the visiting dugouts, and put everything else aside and have one goal in mind — to play and compete together — is terrific. The happiest I’ve been is seeing them believe in each other. It’s not just been one or two guys — it’s been a collective group of an entire team that has sacrificed and put their own feelings aside and has done what’s best for our team.”
Because of their own mindsets, Clay now sits within two games from establishing the new all-time mark for wins in a season, as only the 1949 squad, which took the field 76 years ago, has won over 20 games in a single campaign.
Breaking the aforementioned district title drought also sits within reach, and even the 82-year drought of advancing to a state semifinal — a feat that only Long’s 1944 group has ever done from a baseball standpoint at Clay — isn’t unfathomable, either.
All of those achievement would certainly thrill the folks in Rosemount and Clay Township as the cathartic atmosphere behind what can be done within the program seems to grow with each passing game and pitch.
“Our community has done nothing but show up, time and time again,” Crabtree said. “A huge thanks goes out to each and every person. You work hard to get your team to buy in, but when you can also get the community to buy into a group of guys, and they are collectively coming up to support a group that’s working hard, it’s just unlike anything else. The community, the parents, the families, the grandparents, the aunts and uncles, and everybody that comes to support these kids — it’s been nothing short of spectacular.”
But while special goals to shoot for and look forward toward striving for, the mentality of the Clay baseball program remains one pitch, one play and one game at a time.
“It’s one game at a time,” Crabtree said. “The boys have set goals, and they’re achieving those goals one game at a time. That’s the word that you have to keep saying — one game at a time. They have a goal of eclipsing the school record for the number of wins at Clay, which is 21 wins in a season, so if we’re fortunate enough to notch two more wins somewhere between now or tournament play, we’re going to achieve that, and hopefully, even a few more.”