Indians fall in regional semifinals: Newark Catholic's quick start fuels victory over Valley
Jun. 3—LANCASTER — The Valley Indians saw their 2022 season come to an end with a 6-1 defeat at the hands of the Newark Catholic Greenwave in the Division IV, Region 15 semifinals at Beavers Field.
The Green Wave struck first on the scoreboard and never looked back.
After a pair of strikeouts by Valley junior pitcher George Arnett in the first, Newark Catholic strung together five-straight hits — four of which were RBI hits to take a 4-0 lead.
"They hit the ball hard. The second one (hit), Carter took a false step in but I still don't think he gets that one," Valley coach Nolan Crabtree said, afterwards. "They follow it up with one after another. Not much you can say about that — they hit the ball hard and found holes."
Facing the early deficit, Crabtree wanted his Indians to simply chip away at the scoreboard.
The Green Wave added a run in both the fifth and sixth frames, extending their lead to 6-0.
For the game, Valley totaled six hits — half of which came in the seventh inning. Their final hit was an RBI single by junior Carter Nickel which cut Newawk Catholic's lead to 6-1 with two outs.
"Wanted to chip away. Tate had a hit in the first, we struck out three times in the game. We barrelled the ball, hit the ball right at them," Crabtree said. "To their credit they made the routine plays, and made some tough plays too."
The Indians conclude their season in the Region 15 tournament at 22-4, after advancing to the D-IV state tournament a season ago.
Valley was among the top three contenders in the Southern Ohio Conference Division II regular season race before ultimately finishing in second place.
"That's what we told them, they accomplished a lot," Crabtree said. "They didn't get some things they wanted, but we won 22 games and we played extremely hard — nothing to hang your head on."
Valley graduates a pair of senior starters in Chase Morrow and Landon Jones — both of which Crabtree had high praises for.
"Both started all year, two kids who've been apart of our program with the things we've done. They're going to be missed. Chase a multi-year starter, his athleticism in the field. Tremendous overall athlete and had a great career at Valley High School. Landon played an excellent first base for us all year. A kid that loves baseball and showed up and worked hard all four years. Love both of them and very proud of them."
The Indians return seven of their nine starters next season, several of which were key contributors in last year's Region 15 championship team.
"We're an experienced team team and we're going to have good pitching. There are things we need to get better at. You go 22-4, lose two one run games, lose to Unioto and a game to Newark Catholic. Every other game we were battling all season long," Crabtree said. "It was a grind, we fought and competed. There's room for improvement and with our new facility we can put in some winter time work that we've not been able to do before."
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BOX SCORE
*Box score to be updated*
Valley 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 — 1 6 4
Newark Catholic 4 0 0 0 1 1 X — 6 12 0
Pitching
George Arnett (V) 5IP, 4ER, 10H, 1BB, 2K (L)
Carter Nickel (V) 1IP, 0ER, 2H, 0BB, 0K
Eli Morris (NC) 7IP, 1ER, 6H, 1HBP, 1BB, 3K (W)
Reach Jacob Smith at (740) 370-0713 ext. 1930, by email at jsmith@aimmediamidwest.com, or on Twitter @JacobSmithPDT © 2022 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved
