AKRON – Two teams of blue and gold punched their tickets to Saturday morning’s Division 4 state finals on Thursday as the Lincolnview Lancers and Russia Raiders each claimed victories at Canal Park.
Russia kicked off the morning against nine-time champion Newark Catholic and found themselves behind in the early innings against Green Wave hurler Shae Mummey.
Newark Catholic struck first thanks to a pair of errors in the third inning to take a 1-0 lead and added a pair in the following at bat on a hit by pitch, a pair of singles and an error to take a 3-0 advantage into the bottom of the fourth.
Having seen their first two scoring opportunities come and go on an inning ending caught stealing and a 6-4-3 double play, the Raiders looked to take advantage with their bats in the fourth.
Two singles by Brayden Monnin and Xavier Phlipot put Russia in a great position to do damage but again a passing flirtation with disaster reared it’s ugly head as a pair of flyouts quickly put a damper on the would be celebration.
Second baseman Tristan Goris’ error on a throw to first after a diving stop on a ground ball into the outfield allowed Russia to draw within 3-2 before a 2-RBI single from Zane Shappie put the Raiders on top 4-3 before the inning came to an end.
Pitching with a renewed confidence and the lead just down the road from his future home of Walsh University, Russia senior Grant Saunders found his groove on the mound and retired the final nine Green Wave hitters on 27 pitches to secure the win and the Raiders spot in the finals on Saturday.
Saunders (7-0) tossed seven innings of two-hit ball and allowed three runs while striking out three alongside a walk and a hit by pitch to push his blue and gold into their first state finals since 2017.
Shae Mummey suffered his first loss of the season for Newark Catholic (24-7) while allowing four runs over four innings on five hits.
Russia (24-7) advances to their fourth finals and will be seeking their first title since 1971 when they became the first member of the Shelby County Athletic League to accomplish the feat.
Northwest Conference champion and 2021 state runner up Lincolnview wasted no time jumping out to a 1-0 lead as the designated visitors leadoff hitter Landon Price slapped a 3-1 offering from Calvert starter Max Paul into the Rubber Ducks outfield for an opening double.
Cole Binkley followed the example set by his future Ohio State Buckeye teammate and placed an offering into the outfield himself. The Lancers first run came off of a miscue from Paul himself on an errant toss that allowed Price to race home.
Lincolnview pitcher Dane Ebel allowed a walk in the first inning to Mason Johnson but nothing else through the first three innings of work to keep the Lancers ahead on the scoreboard with a bevy of fastballs and offspeed offerings.
Leading off the fourth inning in a nearly similar way to the damage he did in the first, Price slapped an offering from reliever Mason Johnson past the infield and helped to set the table for a big blue and gold inning.
Following a sacrifice bunt to move Price to second by Cole Binkley the Lancers plated their second run of the contest on an RBI single from Ebel himself before an error to Carson Fox place two on the bases. Caden Hanf ripped a first pitch offering from Johnson to bring home both runners before scoring himself on a sacrifice fly by Evan Miller for a 5-0 advantage.
Two walks and an RBI single by Price upped the Lancers lead to 6-0 in the fourth while Ebel was in the midst of starting a string of strikeouts on the opposite end of the innings.
In the top of the fifth the Lancers added their final two markers against reliever Blake Coleman on a 2-RBI single from Austin Bockrath to take an 8-0 lead.
Ebel, a junior standout who entered the season with 118 strikeouts in 55.2 innings on the mound sat down the side on 12 pitches in the bottom of the fifth to run his count on the day to nine and keep the Calvert hitters off the bases.
Calvert’s first hit of the contest opened the bottom of the seventh inning when Mason Johnson flipped a ball off his bat over the head of the Lancer infield to break up Ebel’s potential no-hitter. A walk and a wild pitch spoiled the shutout bid for Ebel moments later but three straight outs secured the victory for Lincolnview moments later when Harry Shultz grounded out to the duo of Caden Hanf and Landon Price.
“Dane really competed today. He retired six of the first seven batters to keep them off the bases in the early innings. He performed well on the big stage at Canal Park like we knew he would. Our offense stated hitting as we collected our 32nd hit in the last three games, all of our hitters 1-9 are seeing the ball extremely well” said Lincolnview 8th year coach Eric Fishpaw on his teams performance.
Calvert (18-13) who were under .500 four times this season on their way to the schools first final four appearance was held to just one hit by Ebel (7-0) over seven innings of work that saw him strike out 11 Seneca hitters.
Lincolnview tied the school record for wins in a season with their 24th with last years state runner up squad and will play Russia in the finals at 10am on Saturday in search of the programs first state title since 1962.
