OHSAA baseball: Hilliard Darby, Grove City celebrate district titles after two-day wait
The Hilliard Darby baseball team is playing loose and it’s leading to big things, namely a Division I district title with a 6-1 win over Olentangy Liberty in a game that started May 26 and concluded May 28.
The 11th-seeded Panthers, who knocked off top-seeded Olentangy 4-1 in a district semifinal May 24, improved to 17-12 and captured their sixth district title. They will play Grove City in a regional semifinal at 2 p.m. June 2 at Dublin Coffman.
“(Liberty is a) really, really good team,” Darby coach Mike Weer said. “It’s hard with the adrenaline from a game and then you stop and it’s two days (later). You never know what’s going to happen. The fact we got out of (the second inning allowing) only one (run) and they didn’t get a hit, I actually felt really good after that inning.”
Brody Van Dyke scored two runs in the first two innings, including one on Casey Maruniak’s two-out double to give the Panthers a 4-0 lead in the second just before play was halted May 26 because of rain.
The constant for the Panthers was Kyle Kessel, who allowed an unearned run on one hit and three walks with two strikeouts over five innings, pitching both days.
“Last year, he gained about 10 miles per hour on his fastball,” Weer said. “But he’s never really been in these situations. He played j.v. for us last year. He kind struggled a little bit with his own confidence, being in these situations. I couldn’t be more proud of the way he’s worked through it.”
Liberty, seeded fifth, came up short in a district final for the second consecutive season and finished 22-7.
“I thought (Kessel) had a good three-pitch mix,” Liberty coach Ty Brenning said. “In some ways, he was effectively wild. He didn’t get himself into trouble, but he was in and out of the zone to keep us off-balance.”
When play resumed May 28, Nolan Fogg reached on an error to start the bottom half of the second. He stole second and moved to third on Anderson Gomez’s groundout before Connor Bourn drove him home with a sacrifice fly for Liberty’s only run.
“We’ve played some really good teams this year where in the bottom of the second, we’ve given up five or six runs and lost the lead,” Weer said. “We’d make some mistakes and let it (compound). We didn’t do that today. After that, I felt really good about where we’re going to go.”
Kessel gave up a hit to David Dielman with two outs in the third and retired seven of the final eight batters he faced.
“Just being able to trust my teammates, they had my back every single step of the way all season, and that was huge,” Kessel said.
Liberty had a chance to close the gap in the sixth with two on and one out after Dielman and Fogg each got hits. But reliever Cooper Gilkerson struck out the final two batters to end the threat.
“We had a couple of balls hit right at people,” Brenning said. “I thought Brock (Amelung) stung a ball in the (fifth) that was a lineout to center to end the inning. When you get yourself into a hole like we did at the beginning of the game, you’re living on a knife’s edge at that point. Today just wasn’t our day.”
Maruniak, Jameson O’Flynn and Matt Spencer had two hits apiece for the Panthers.
Amelung allowed two unearned runs on five hits with seven strikeouts for the Patriots.
—Michael Rich
Grove City 2, Lancaster 0
The fourth-seeded Greyhounds and third-seeded Golden Gales played another classic Division I district final.
A year ago, Lancaster came away with a 2-1, 11-inning win to capture its third consecutive district championship.
The 2022 version had all the makings of another nail-biter, only this one took two extra days. After playing 6 1/3 scoreless innings May 26 at Olentangy Orange before rain halted the game, it was resumed May 28 at Upper Arlington.
Grove City (22-5) scored twice in the top of the eighth and left two Lancaster (21-6) runners stranded in the bottom half to secure its first district title since 2014.
“We knew what we were getting ourselves into if we had to play Lancaster again,” Grove City coach Ryan Alexander said. “I’ve watched coach (Corey) Conn take that program from a struggling team to a complete powerhouse in central Ohio, so I know how hard he has worked to build that, and we have the utmost respect for that program.
“After last year, losing the way we did in 11 innings, and feeling like we should have won, it feels great to get this one, especially since we haven’t won a district title for a while now.”
The Greyhounds started the eighth with a double from Grady Speegle off Lancaster starter Layton O’Rourke. Braylon Boggs came in to pinch run for Speegle, and with two outs, Trent Ruffing laid down a bunt and beat the throw to first, which allowed Boggs to score.
After Keegan Holmstrom walked, Jackson Ware hit a bloop single to left field and Ruffing beat Riley Poston’s throw home on a bang-bang play for a 2-0 lead.
Lancaster threatened in the bottom of the inning as Dom Bornino led off with a single, but the Greyhounds turned a double play. Ajay Locke then reached on an error and Harrison Allen followed with an infield single, but Ware, who pitched all three innings May 28, ended the threat with a pop out to first base.
On May 26, Bornino pitched a no-hitter through 5 1/3 innings while Holmstrom gave up only one hit, a leadoff single to Tony Falvo.
“Those two were on fire Thursday night and both of them were dealing,” Alexander said. “We really value ourselves as a great hitting team, and to have zero hits, we weren’t really in a good place, mentally, leaving there, so to come back and battle like we did, getting the two days enabled us to recharge a little bit.”
—Tom Wilson, Lancaster Eagle Gazette
Buckeye Valley 5, Johnstown-Monroe 4 (10 innings)
Junior Clay Bruning threw a third consecutive postseason gem for fifth-seeded Johnstown on May 28, but second-seeded Buckeye Valley scored all of its runs when twice down to its last at-bat to win a Division II district final at Mount Vernon Nazarene.
Bruning previously allowed a total of six hits and one run in consecutive victories against DeSales and Watterson. When postponements May 26 and 27 gave him the required rest under the OHSAA’s pitch count rules, he took the ball again.
Buckeye Valley managed just four baserunners through the first six innings before three consecutive hits, including an RBI hit for Zach Church, and a throwing error on a bunt to start the bottom of the seventh allowed the Barons to tie the game.
Bruning pitched into the ninth before the Barons (17-5) scratched out two runs in the bottom of the 10th after the Johnnies had regained the lead.
"I preached to our kids the entire year to be gritty and never give up," said Buckeye Valley coach Johnny DeRing, whose team plays Eaton in a regional semifinal at 5 p.m. June 2 at Mason.
"I am at a loss for words right now; I gotta be honest with you," he added. "I am so freakin' proud of them. They deserve this, especially our seniors. They have had a tough road over the past four years."
Bruning threw 8 2/3 innings and struck out eight without a walk.
Johnstown (19-7-1) only went down in order twice and finally broke through in the fifth on junior Benji Perez’s two-run single, which scored classmate Garrett Grinstead and senior Gavin Warden. Perez later scored on an error, and in a turnaround season when the Johnnies jumped from eight wins to 19, three runs often was enough.
The Johnnies scored in the top of the 10th when junior Chase Boroff singled and eventually reached home on an error. The Barons sandwiched two singles around a throwing error to load the bases before earning their second consecutive walk-off win on a Church walk to score Tanner Domyanich and a wild pitch to score Mason Kurtz.
"I am very proud of these young men," Johnstown coach Travis Carpenter said. "They have taken the next step, and hopefully next year can take an even bigger step."
—Kurt Snyder, Newark Advocate
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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Darby, Grove City outlast rain to win baseball district titles
