Columbus-area high school sports notebook, May 17

•The Grove City baseball team enters each season with three major goals.

The Greyhounds achieved the first goal of winning a league championship, as they shared the OCC-Ohio Division title with defending Division I state champion New Albany at 12-3.

"It’s been a goal of ours since we got back together in the summer after last season to repeat," sophomore Keegan Holmstrom said. "We play in an extremely tough conference that just gets better every year and you can never take a game off in this league and we knew that. We knew we had a target on our back after winning the league last year and that’s what we wanted. We want everybody’s best game and we know that’s what we’re going to get."

Grove City’s other goals are capturing a district title and collecting 20 wins. The Greyhounds reached 20 wins with a 5-1 victory over Watkins Memorial on May 16, improving to 20-7.

Grove City is seeded fourth in the district tournament and plays host to 30th-seeded Hilliard Bradley in the second round May 18. The winner plays 13th-seeded Hilliard Davidson or 14th-seeded Worthington Kilbourne in a semifinal May 24. The district final is May 26.

The Greyhounds are seeking their first district title since 2014.

—Frank DiRenna

Track & Field: Gahanna Lincoln's title sweep highlights record-breaking slate of OCC meets

•The Canal Winchester baseball team won its first OCC-Capital Division championship in five years in memorable fashion, finishing its league schedule 14-0.

Joey Young went 2-for-3 with a double May 14 as the Indians defeated Delaware 10-4 in their league finale. The Indians are 18-5 overall and 17-1 in their last 18 games.

Their only loss in that stretch was to last year’s Division II state runner-up, Bloom-Carroll, 10-0 on May 12.

Canal Winchester was voted the eighth seed for the Division I district tournament and plays host to 17th-seeded Westerville Central in a second-round game May 18. The winner faces seventh-seeded Watkins Memorial, 22nd-seeded Pickerington Central or 46th-seeded Mifflin in a district semifinal May 23.

—Dave Purpura

•Good pitching and timely hitting led the Olentangy baseball team to its first league title since 2017. The Braves have a 1.60 ERA and a .305 team batting average.

The Braves, riding a seven-game winning streak after a 6-2 victory over Lancaster on May 13, finished the regular season 23-3. They also won the OCC-Cardinal Division at 14-1.

Austin Sizemore is 6-0 with a 0.89 ERA in 31 1/3 innings over seven appearances, including five starts. He also has been one of the team’s top hitters, batting .446 with 23 runs, 19 RBI, seven doubles and two triples.

In six starts, Vitaly DiBlasi is 5-0 with a 0.96 ERA over 29 1/3 innings. He leads the Braves with 41 strikeouts.

Tommy Chilicki is 3-0 with a 1.01 ERA in seven appearances, including four starts, over 25 1/3 innings. Brady Beaumont has a 1.85 ERA in 34 innings over seven starts.

Carter Williamson leads the team with 37 2/3 innings in 18 appearances, including one start. He has a 0.93 ERA and three saves.

Nathan Holycross batted .464 with 33 RBI, 18 runs and seven doubles through 24 games.

The Braves are seeded first in the Division I district tournament and open the postseason May 18. They are seeking their first district championship since 2018.

—Michael Rich

•The St. Charles baseball team won its first CCL championship since 2017.

The Cardinals defeated Ready 11-6 on May 13 to tie Watterson for the league title at 4-2. St. Charles beat the Eagles 7-4 on April 25 and lost to Watterson 4-0 on May 6.

“That was big for our guys,” coach Ray Benjamin said. “We went 4-0 in round one (of league play) and lost (to DeSales 4-2 on May 2) to start the second.

“We had a big week for that second round playing DeSales on Monday, Hartley on Wednesday (2-1 win in nine innings May 4) and Watterson on Friday. These guys found ways to win despite not having a lot of experience coming into the season.”

St. Charles is 14-8 overall entering a May 18 game at 18th-seeded Newark in the second round of the Division I district tournament. The Cardinals are the 24th seed.

Sophomore left-hander Charlie Griffith is 3-2 with a 2.00 ERA, 44 strikeouts and 13 walks in 35 innings. He's batting .358 with 14 RBI and 13 runs, and Scotty Beckman is batting a team-best .382 with 16 RBI and 16 runs.

—Scott Hennen

•The Watterson baseball team beat DeSales 7-1 on May 11 to share the CCL championship with St. Charles at 6-2.

Last season, the Eagles and Cardinals tied for third at 4-4 as Hartley won the league and DeSales was runner-up.

In the win over the Stallions, sophomore pitcher Nick Kudika struck out five in six innings and sophomore third baseman John Baumel had two hits and two RBI.

Watterson then beat Granville, the district's No. 1 seed in Division II, 16-7 in its regular-season finale May 16 to improve to 15-8 overall.

—Jarrod Ulrey

•The Dublin Jerome boys volleyball team will look to ride the momentum of winning the Battle of Dublin and a match in the OCC Challenge into the Division I, East Region tournament.

The Celtics went 2-0 in the Battle of Dublin on May 13 at home, beating Scioto 25-15, 25-22 and Coffman 25-21, 25-21. Jerome won the event for the fourth consecutive time and sixth overall.

“It was a fun night,” coach Phil Cagnoli said. “Getting our name engraved on the Battle of Dublin trophy is a goal of ours every season. Many of the kids know each other, so we want those bragging rights.”

Kai Van Bourgondien led Jerome with 34 assists and four aces. Henry Guerrera had 15 kills, Aidan Eberhardt had 10 kills, Cam Eckelberry had 12 digs and Connor Kemp had 11 digs.

“Our guys love to compete in that event and it's always a nice community showcase for boys volleyball and what our athletes can do,” Cagnoli said. “I want boys in Dublin to be able to see the game played at a high level and want to try it themselves. There's a reason it’s the fastest-growing high school sport for boys in the nation. With the sport finally getting sanctioned by the OHSAA, it’s only going to grow more.”

Coffman beat Scioto 25-17, 25-12 in the other match.

The Celtics beat New Albany 25-23, 27-25 in the OCC Challenge on May 16 at Hilliard Darby.

Jerome is seeded sixth in the regional tournament and plays ninth-seeded Westerville North in the second round May 21 at Pickerington Central. The winner plays fourth-seeded Central, eighth-seeded Hilliard Davidson or 16th-seeded Westerville Central in a semifinal May 25 at a site to be determined.

—Frank DiRenna

•The defending Division I state champion Dublin Coffman girls lacrosse team received the No. 2 seed for the Region 3 tournament.

The Shamrocks lost 21-4 on April 11 to Upper Arlington, the district's top seed, but enter the postseason with the momentum of winning three of their last four games.

The last of those victories was 14-13 on May 10 over DeSales, improving Coffman's record to 12-5. The Stallions are the third seed for the Division II, Region 7 tournament.

Against DeSales, Kate Tyack and Bailey Morris both scored six goals and goalie Kiki Jose made seven saves.

—Jarrod Ulrey

•With a 20-4 victory over Hartley on May 11, the Watterson girls lacrosse team improved to 13-3 overall and wrapped up the CIL championship at 6-0.

The Eagles, who are the No. 1 seed for the Division II, Region 7 tournament, got 10 goals from Makenna Twombly and five goals and three assists from Zoe Coleman against the Hawks.

Coleman enters the postseason with 91 goals and 44 assists. Twombly has 54 goals and 21 assists, and Meg Newcomb has 52 goals and 26 assists.

The Eagles reached a state semifinal last season.

—Jarrod Ulrey

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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Notebook: What's happening in central Ohio high school sports?