HAMILTON — Alex Koelling spent nearly two years waiting to play competitive baseball again.
The former Mason High School standout was in rehabilitation after a serious knee injury derailed his career.
Wednesday night at Foundation Field looked a lot like the comeback he had envisioned.
Koelling delivered a three-run double that ignited one of Hamilton’s biggest offensive innings of the summer, helping the Joes cruise to a 10-1 victory over the Lima Locos and hand one of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League’s hottest teams its first road loss of the season.
Hamilton improved to 6-9, snapping Lima’s nine-game winning streak.
The win also continued an encouraging stretch for Koelling, who has quietly become one of Hamilton’s most productive hitters despite still working his way back from injury. The Miami University infielder has recorded four multi-hit games this summer, and Wednesday marked his second game with at least three RBIs.
“You know, our offense has kind of been struggling the past couple of games,” said Koelling, whose freshman season was wiped out at Ohio State because of recovery. “We knew we needed to keep the approach the same. We were putting good approaches together and hitting balls hard early, but they just weren’t falling yet. We knew we were going to have that big inning come eventually, and I was just happy I was able to create some energy in the dugout and hit that double to score a couple runs. It started something.”
It certainly did.
Hamilton broke the game open after Koelling’s bases-clearing double found the gap, and the Joes never looked back. Their pitching staff complemented the offensive breakout by limiting the Locos to one run while ending Lima’s unbeaten run away from home.
The Joes opened the season 4-4 before losing five of their next six games — a stretch in which solid performances were often undone by one difficult inning. Wednesday’s performance offered perhaps the clearest indication yet that Hamilton is beginning to put all three phases together.
“I feel like we’re finding some form of consistency,” Hamilton Joes first-year coach Davis Schaefer said. “It hasn’t been bad games. It’s been bad innings. We’ve had innings where we give up six, seven or eight runs. For us, it’s just about consistency.”
Schaefer said the Joes have routinely arrived at Foundation Field more than three hours before games for extra work — focusing on approach at the plate, baserunning and defensive fundamentals.
“These guys are working really hard,” Schaefer said. “We’re really just figuring out the process of putting together a good at-bat and seeing how that translates into a successful offense. Good process turns into good products.”
Koelling’s journey has required even more patience.
A member of Mason’s 2024 Division I state championship team, Koelling established himself as one of Southwest Ohio’s top middle infielders. He batted .370 as a senior with 39 hits, 32 runs scored, 26 RBIs and 23 stolen bases before beginning his collegiate career at Ohio State.
Then everything stopped.
A knee injury shortly after graduation forced him into months of rehabilitation. He missed his freshman spring and remained sidelined while recovering, making this summer with the Joes his first competitive baseball since high school.
“It was tough when that happened,” Koelling said. “I really had to dig deep a little bit and just work even harder. I think it was a good thing because I was able to learn about myself even more. I’m just so happy to be able to be out here and have fun with my teammates and play the game again.
“This is my first action of baseball. It’s been awesome just coming out here to the yard every day and being able to put a smile on my face playing with these guys. It’s just been awesome. I’m not really caring about the results and just trying to win games.”
Schaefer has watched Koelling’s confidence steadily return.
“AK has been great for us,” Schaefer said. “The biggest thing in the last week or so is we’ve been in position to do some good things, and no one’s gotten a big hit. I think just one big hit kind of opened the floodgates tonight, and I think everyone kind of stepped up and did their job.”
The Hamilton manager believes Wednesday’s win represented more than one impressive night against one of the league’s top teams.
“We wanted to go into Game 3 having a chance to win a series against a really good team,” Schaefer said of Thursday’s series finale at Lima. “That was the first game they’ve lost on the road, so it felt good to kind of put an end to that.”
More importantly, Schaefer hopes it reinforces the standard his club is capable of reaching.
“We’ve just been reiterating to these guys that can be the expectation,” Schaefer said. “Because that’s what these guys are capable of doing.”
And for Koelling, the numbers are beginning to return — four multi-hit games, two contests with at least three RBIs and a swing that changed Wednesday night’s game. More meaningful, however, is simply being back on the field after a journey that tested his patience and perspective.
“This is awesome,” Koelling said. “Just being able to play the game again.”
