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Newark Catholic ends WR’s dream season
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Newark Catholic’s Zach Wollenburg (12) steals second base as the throw eludes Western Reserve’s Wyatt Larimer during the bottom of the third inning Thursday at Huntington Park in Columbus. Newark Catholic beat Western Reserve, 6-2, in a Division IV state semifinal. The Green Wave will meet Defiance Tinora in the state final Saturday.
By Joe Scalzo
COLUMBUS
Western Reserve High baseball coach Ed Anthony swears he included a state championship on his list of preseason goals — “It was no bull,” he said — but he also admits no one outside his locker room thought it was possible.
“If you don’t have a state championship as one of your goals, you shouldn’t be coaching,” Anthony said. “When we actually made it down here, I think the kids and the community started believing.”
The Blue Devils kept their hopes alive through 51/2 innings of Thursday’s Division IV state semifinal before perennial state power Newark Catholic broke things open in the sixth inning en route to a 6-2 victory at Huntington Park.
“It’s really special for everybody,” said Anthony, whose team was making its first state tournament appearance. “I told the kids, ‘You belong here. It’s something you’re going to have for life.’
“[Baseball] teams at Western Reserve will always be compared to 2014.”
Western Reserve (19-6) got off to a rough start, falling behind 1-0 when Green Wave leadoff hitter Mike Lohr doubled to left and never stopped running, scoring on back-to-back throwing errors.
Blue Devils ace Nick Allison — who was clearly hampered by a sore elbow — then gave up two singles and hit a batter but got out of the inning without further damage.
Western Reserve tied the game in the top of the second when Tristan Bova reached on an error to short and scored on Dan Zilke’s double to right field.
Newark Catholic added a run in the bottom of the second inning, again loading the bases to end Allison’s day after 12/3 innings. Bova replaced him, limiting the damage to one run and keeping the game close through five innings.
“I was saying to myself the whole way out in the fifth inning, ‘We’re gonna get these kids out and we’re going to break out,’” Bova said. “And I thought we were.”
But after stranding nine runners in the first five innings, the Green Wave broke through with four runs in the sixth. Conor Keck had the big hit, a two-run, two-out double to help send Newark Catholic (20-7) to its eighth state final since 2002.
The defending state champions will meet Defiance Tinora in Saturday’s championship game.
“I just told the umpire, ‘We’re like the cat with nine lives,’” Anthony said. “They [the Green Wave] had opportunities and usually it’ll come back to haunt a team like that, but they made a couple big hits in there at the end.”
Western Reserve scored one run in the sixth thanks to a couple of fielding errors and nearly added another with two outs. With runners on first and second, No. 9 hitter Jon Timko lined a single to center. Zilke tried to score from second but was thrown out at the plate to end the game.
“We were right there until the gates opened up [in the sixth] and I can’t ask for no more,” Anthony said. “I take my cap off [to Newark Catholic]. They earned it.
“Hopefully we can get back down here and the younger ones can just build from here, just like we basically do with football.”