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Clippers win in a rout for D-4 title
By DOUG CHAPIN
LORAIN
What the Columbiana High baseball team has accomplished this postseason doesn’t happen very often.
The most obvious rare accomplishment is a berth in the state tournament, clinched Friday with a 13-2 rout of Cuyahoga Heights in the Division IV regional final at the Pipe Yard.
The Clippers (21-10) will play in a state semifinal next Thursday at 1 p.m. at Huntington Park in Columbus against Newark Catholic or Racine Southern.
Columbiana’s only other trip to state came in 1981, when current coach Scott Knox was a player for the Clippers. Columbiana had not been to a regional since 1994.
But it’s the way the Clippers went about their run this season that is amazing.
High school baseball teams just don’t go into the regional tournament and score five times in the first inning two games in a row. But the Clippers did.
And they don’t win five straight tournament games, all by at least five runs. But that’s exactly what the Clippers have done. All this from a team that was 8-8 at one point in the season.
“The thing that was really hurting us then was our defense,” Knox said. “We were making a lot of errors. The pitching was pretty good at the time, but if you don’t catch the ball to back up your pitcher, then you can hit all day long and it won’t matter. You’re not going to outscore teams every day.
“But once the defense kind of got fixed … we’ve been on a 15-2 tear and it’s directly related to our defense. We swung the bat well today, but you’re not going to get 13 runs every day. So the pitching’s been really good and the defense has been outstanding these last 17 games.”
Junior pitcher Josh Saverko scattered five hits and walked just one, needing only 76 pitches over six innings. Though he only struck out four, the Heights batters rarely hit the ball sharply.
“Typical gutsy game by Josh, he’s going to go out and battle and he’s going to throw strikes,” Knox said. “He’s not overpowering but he’s around the plate and he gets ahead of hitters.”
The five-run first inning on Friday was keyed by a three-run double by Hank Schlueter.
Jay Williamson doubled home two runs in the third to make the score 7-1, then the Clippers piled on with a six-run sixth highlighted by Jeff Davidson’s three-run homer that cleared the left field fence by plenty.