Carrollton baseball falls in pitchers’ duel

Somewhere, a baseball purist is probably framing the box score from Carrollton and Minerva’s district semifinal.

Everybody else was too busy chewing their fingernails.

When two rivals split their regular-season meetings and then get thrown together in tournament play, strange things tend to happen. On May 28, what happened was seven innings of tension, 20 combined strikeouts, one run, and enough drama to power a small town.

The third meeting between Carrollton and Minerva lived up to the billing as the No. 8 seed Lions slipped past the No. 2 seed Warriors 1-0 in a Division IV East 2 district semifinal at Carrollton's Field of Dreams. The game remained scoreless until the sixth inning, when Minerva finally broke through with what proved to be the only run of the night.

If offense sells tickets, it was pitching that won this game.

Minerva ace Braydon Wood continued his postseason rampage, firing a complete-game shutout while allowing only three hits and striking out 11. As if that were not enough, Wood also became Minerva's all-time strikeout leader during the contest, finishing the night with 171 career strikeouts. The guy wasn't just winning a district semifinal – he was collecting school records along the way.

Carrollton's Isaac Husted was nearly every bit as good. The senior worked all seven innings, allowed just five hits, surrendered only one unearned run, struck out nine, and did not walk a batter. On most nights, that stat line earns high fives, a game ball, and maybe dinner from the parents. Unfortunately, this night featured Wood standing on the other mound.

Brennan Barnes delivered the game's biggest hit, going 2-for-3 with a double and the game-winning RBI in the sixth inning. Parker Linkous scored the decisive run after aggressively working his way into scoring position to set up the run, while Jason Sivy and Kaden Kandel each added hits for the Lions. Minerva finished with five hits and just enough offense to survive.

Carrollton was hardly overmatched. Cooper Haun, Branden Marshall, and Jayven Johnson each recorded hits, and the Warriors turned a double play on defense. In the end, though, one run was the difference between advancing and cleaning out lockers.

The loss ended an excellent season for Carrollton at 16-11. The Warriors were ranked 16th in the final Division IV Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association state poll and captured their fourth consecutive sectional championship. Not a bad run for a team that spent much of the spring proving it could hang with just about anybody.

Track and Field

While baseball provided the week's headline, Carrollton's track and field athletes were busy battling some of the best competition in the state at the Division III New Concord Regional, hosted by Muskingum University from May 28-30. Although no Warriors advanced to the state meet at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium, several athletes closed their seasons with strong performances.

Landyn Winkler turned in perhaps the best individual performance of the weekend, placing 12th in the 800m run while setting a personal-best time of 2:00.29. Personal records at the regional meet are never a bad way to end a season, even if the stopwatch can be maddeningly stingy about handing out state berths.

The Warriors also had a 4x800m relay team compete at regionals. Brayden Limbacher, Carson Murphy, Andy Husk, and Winkler combined to place 10th with a time of 8:27.87, wrapping up their season against one of the deeper fields in Division III.

No state qualifiers emerged from the regional meet, but the Warriors still walked away with personal bests, valuable experience, and the knowledge that they were competing against some of Ohio's better distance runners. That's not a bad consolation prize, although that trip to Columbus would have been nicer.