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Time runs out for Columbiana

STRUTHERS–After barging into the district semifinals as a nine-seed, the Columbiana baseball team didn’t have quite enough magic to pull another upset.

The Clippers battled fifth-seeded Mogadore for nine tension-filled innings Wednesday before finally succumbing on a bases-loaded passed ball for a 3-2 loss in Division III district semifinal action at Cene Park.

Columbiana (13-15) battled through an up-and-down regular season, but the Clippers put everything together in a 1-0 sectional final upset over top-seeded Canton Central Catholic last Tuesday. The Clippers felt they were peaking at the right time and thought they were more than capable of making a run.

“I didn’t want it to end like this at all,” Columbiana senior pitcher Zach Fahs said. “We all thought we could make a run. We gave it everything we had today, it just wasn’t enough I guess.”

The Wildcats, which rallied to beat East Palestine in the sectional final, broke a Columbiana County team’s heart for the second straight tournament game.

Mogadore trailed 2-1 going into the bottom of the fifth before rallying to tie it on a two-out RBI single from Kyle Coffman. With the bases-loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Fahs’ first pitch to No. 3 hitter Camden Ramirez went to the backstop, allowing Marcus Dillon to bound home with the winning run.

The Wildcats (9-7) will play for the district title against third-seeded South Range at 6:30 p.m. today at Cene Park.

“Geez, that was a battle tonight,” Mogadore coach Stephen Lutz said. “Give Columbiana a ton of credit, their pitcher fought hard all night and they made all the plays they needed to in the field behind him.”

Columbiana scratched across both of its runs in the third inning. Fahs reached on a fielder’s choice and motored all the way to third on a bloop single by Chase Franken. Fahs then came home on a passed ball, with Franken taking his place at third. Moments later, Mogadore pitcher Mitchell Markusic uncorked a wild pitch, scoring Franken and giving the Clippers a 2-1 lead.

Markusic settled back down after that and wound up lasting all nine innings with seven strikeouts and one walk. He permitted just two baserunners after the third, with neither one advancing past first base.

Columbiana’s only other serious threat came in the first when Fahs led off with a double and A.J. Perkins was hit by a pitch.

Fahs sidestepped a couple of major threats and matched Markusic all the way until the ninth. The Wildcats had a runner at second with two outs in the fifth and runners at second and third with two outs in the sixth, but were unable to score both times.

“Zach was a warrior out there tonight,” Columbiana coach Ryan Wolf said. “Mogadore is an aggressive team at the plate, but he kept the ball down in the zone and they didn’t have a lot of hard contact off of him.”

Trouble started right away for Fahs in the ninth, as a leadoff walk, a bunt single and an intentional walk loaded the bases with one out. The Clippers responded by getting a force play at home for the second out before it all ended one pitch later.

“My arm didn’t feel tired in the ninth,” Fahs said. “For some reason, though, I couldn’t get the ball up at the end of the game.”

“It didn’t go our way, but I told the team how proud I was of them,” Wolf said. “We had a couple of times this year, where it looked like we could be done, but the guys never gave in.”

Game notes

¯The Clippers lose Fahs, A.J. Perkins, Dejon Hudson and Aaron Thistlewaite to graduation.

Zach and A.J. specifically were three-year letterwinners for us and great representatives of the game,” Wolf said. “Zach has been a leader both on the mound and the plate and A.J. really stepped up as a great leader this year. He had mostly played first base for us, but we moved him around a little bit to different positions and also had him pitch a lot more for us this year. I remember one time we had just played five games in a row and we had no pitching left. We sent him out there against Springfield and he was able to throw strikes and gut it out. He was willing to do whatever we asked.”

¯Wednesday was Columbiana’s first appearance in the district round since 2011 when they lost a Div. IV district final to eventual state qualifier Springfield.

“It was big for us to get back here,” Wolf said. “We have a lot of young guys and hopefully they see what it takes to be a good baseball team. When you reach this level, it takes a different kind of focus that you have to have during every pitch. You have to have the mindset that it’s not about one person or one at-bat, it’s about what you do as a whole. Hopefully we’ll build on this and go from there.”

C: 0-0-2-0-0-0-0-0-0–2-5-2

M: 1-0-0-0-1-0-0-0-1–3-7-0

M–Mitchell Markusic, wp, (9IP, 7K, 1BB) and Dylan Smith.

C–Zach Fahs, lp, (8 2/3 IP, 3K, 2BB) and Erik Hopfenziz.

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