Jun. 12—AKRON — Lincolnview and Lucasville Valley both knew where they needed to go. It was just a question of who would get there first.
Getting the lead is always important. But in a baseball state semifinal that is scoreless going into the final inning its value is multiplied.
Lincolnview got on the scoreboard first with two runs in the top of the seventh, then held on for a 2-1 win in a Division IV baseball state semifinal win on Saturday, which sent the Lancers on to today’s state championship game at 4 p.m. at Canal Park..
Warren John F. Kennedy beat Fort Loramie 3-2 in Saturday’s other D-IV semifinal.
Before the seventh inning Saturday’s game was a high-level pitching duel between Lincolnview’s Landon Price and Lucasvillle Valley’s George Arnett.
Price struck out the first nine batters he faced. He didn’t allow a hit until the sixth inning and finished with a 14-strikeout two-hitter.
Arnett pitched a three-hitter, didn’t allow a hit until the fifth inning and struck out four.
Price said he felt good in warm-ups and expected to come out strong.
“I knew in the bullpen that I was throwing really good. We didn’t know a lot about this Lucasville Valley team but it felt really good to go out there and get in a rhythm, get in a groove and kind of set the tone early,” he said.
The Lancers had a chance to score a run in the fifth inning when Carson Fox led off with a walk, Cole Binkley sacrificed him to second base and Caden Hanf singled to right field. But Hunter Edwards’ throw beat Fox to the plate.
Lucasville Valley threatened to score in the fourth inning when Andrew Andronis walked, moved up on a sacrifice bunt and got to third base with one out. But a failed squeeze bunt erased Andronis at the plate.
“We were putting the ball in play, we weren’t striking out. We just stayed true to our swings and knew we would break through at some point in the game,” Lincolnview coach Eric Fishpaw said.
Lincolnview hit several balls hard early in the game but had only Hanf’s single after six innings.
But that, and the direction of the game, changed in the top of the seventh inning.
Collin Overholt led off with a line drive double to right field. The next batter, Dane Ebel, walked. Two batters later Binkley singled to right field for the first run of the game and Hanf follwed that with a sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead.
“We were on him, hitting it solid but just right to guys. There at the end we got a few hits to fall in the gaps and that was the difference,” Overholt said. “Most of the game I had gotten a curveball on the second pitch and he did it again and it kind of sat. I hit it down the line and was thinking two out of the box.”
Binkley was playing on a tender hamstring, an issue he has dealt with most of the season.
“That was the biggest hit of his career. We’re proud of him. He’s been batting through injuries all year. He wanted that at bat, he wanted that moment and he came up big for us,” Fishpaw said.
Binkley said, “I pulled my hamstring pretty bad early in the year. It put me on crutches. I’ve been battling it all year. I probably barely played half the season. I was playing in this game. I didn’t care if I tore it, I was playing in this game,” he said.
Price said Overholt’s hit “brought the energy up to a whole new level.”
The tension in the game might have gone to a new level, too, in the bottom of the seventh when Lucasville Valley scored its run on a throwing error, a bad pickoff throw and double by Edwards, who represented the tying run at second base with no one out.
But Lincolnview secured its trip to today’s championship when Price fielded a bunt and threw out Edwards at third base for the first out, then struck out the final two hitters.
“No lead is safe. They were a very good team. They made a ton of plays early in the game,” Fishpaw said.
And now the Lancers (24-8) have a chance to win a state championship, which would be the school’s second baseball state title. Lincolnview won the Class A title in 1962.
“It’s great. In high school it’s always the goal to get to the state finals. To finally do it is great,” Overholt said.
Price said, “It’s a dream come true. We’ve been dreaming about this. All of us have been playing together for about 10 years now. We’ve all been dreaming about this since we were little kids playing at Middle Point.
“It’s just surreal right now. I don’t really know what to feel exactly. But I’m really excited, that’s for sure,” he said.
Reach Jim Naveau at 567-242-0414.