by Akron, Ohio – The Waynedale Golden Bears’ offense was firing on all cylinders Saturday evening, as they topped Harrison Central, 10-1, in the OHSAA Division III state championship at Canal Park.
Dylan Raber led off the bottom of the first with a single. A sacrifice bunt moved him over to second, and two walks loaded the bases. Senior infielder and Ohio University baseball commit Trey Barkman reached on a fielders’ choice to score Raber and put Waynedale in front, 1-0.
The offense took flight in the second inning. Shane Coblentz had a one-out double, followed by a Tate Venables walk. A Dylan Raber single loaded the bases, and Tristan Franks hit a two-run single to increase the lead to 3-0. Connor Gatti followed with a two-run double to left to increase the score to 5-0. Timmy Short hit a double to left field to score Gatti, increasing the lead to 6-0. Jayden Schlabach followed with an RBI single to pad the lead to 7-0.
The Golden Bears added a run on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third from Timmy Short to increase the lead to 8-0.
Gavin Spitler led off with a triple down the right field line in the bottom of the fourth. He scored on a Shane Coblentz single, increasing the lead to 9-0.
Harrison Central got on the board in the top of the fifth inning when Anthony Pelegreen led off with a single. He would later score on a two-out single by Kaden Jurosko.
Waynedale would add one more when Trey Barkman hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth to score Connor Gatti, who led off with a single.
Otto Solorzano threw six strong innings, allowing six hits, one run, walking one, and striking out seven on 75 pitches. Timmy Short closed out the game with a 1-2-3 top of the seventh to give Waynedale back-to-back state titles.
Senior shortstop Dylan Raber went 4-5 with three runs scored. Shane Coblentz, Tristan Franks, Connor Gatti, and Jayden Schlabach each had a pair of hits for the Golden Bears. Gatti, Short, Franks, and Barkman each had a pair of RBIs.
Kaden Jurosko went 2-3 at the plate with a double and an RBI for Harrison Central.
