HAMLER — For the second straight day, to no one’s surprise, Lincolnview pitching dominated in Saturday afternoon’s Division IV regional final, as senior righthander Collin Overholt one-hit Leipsic 5-0. The win sends the Lancers (23-8) to the state tournament at Akron’s Canal Park where they’ll meet Lucasville Valley (20-11) Friday morning at 10:00. Leipsic’s season ends at 25-7.
“Back in March we set goals of sectional champs, district champs, regional champs, and they put ‘state champs’ on the board,” said Lancer coach Eric Fishpaw. “The goal was to get there, and our next goal is to win it, so don’t be satisfied with just getting there.”
Leipsic was no match for Overholt’s mixture of blazing fastballs and accurate curves. He walked nobody, hit one batter, and struck out 12, throwing 95 pitches, 71 strikes (75 percent). The only Viking hit was a hard hit infield single off of Overholt’s glove in the fourth inning. The Vikes put the ball in play ten times, eight of those by the first three batters in the order.
Meanwhile, Lincolnview jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. After the first two Lancers went out on long fly balls, starting lefthander Trey Schroeder lost his command, never again to get it back. A hit batter, walk, hit batter, and two-run line single to left by sophomore DH Caden Hanf put the Lancers up by two, which turned out to be enough.
Senior centerfielder Clayton Leeth led off the top of the second with a walk, went to second on a passed ball, to third on a wild pitch, and home on a long two-out double down the leftfield line by Overholt. At that point, Schroeder was relieved by another lefty, junior Blake Liffick, who immediately took command with an array of predominantly slow curves.
The Lancers didn’t mount a serious threat off of Liffick until the seventh when they put across two insurance runs. With one out, senior third baseman Creed Jessee was hit by a pitch, and senior first baseman Landon Price walked. Both moved up a base on a passed ball. Overholt drove in Jessee with an opposite field single to right, and sophomore shortstop Dane Ebel brought in Price with an opposite field sacrifice fly to left.
Lincolnview’s seven hits came from Overholt (2 for 4, including a double, two RBI), Hanf (2 for 3, two RBI), Price (1 for 3, one run), junior rightfielder Cole Binkley (1 for 2), and Jessee (1 for 2, one run).
“(Overholt) had a fastball, 90 miles per hour a few times today,” said Fishpaw. “Carson Fox behind the plate was exceptional; he commanded the game, he did a fantastic job. Couldn’t be more proud of Caden Hanf, sophomore DH, had a couple of big hits, had the two RBI’s there in the first inning. Overall another good team effort.”
Lincolnview (5) (ab-r-h-rbi)
Landon Price 1b 3-1-1-0, Collin Overholt p 4-0-2-2, Dane Ebel ss 2-1-0-1, Carson Fox c 3-1-0-0, Cole Binkley rf 2-0-1-0, Jared Kesler pr 0-0-0-0, Caden Hanf dh 3-0-2-2, Brandon Renner lf 3-0-0-0, Clayton Leeth cf 2-1-0-0, Creed Jessee 3b 2-1-1-0, Aaron Cavinder 2b 0-0-0-0. Totals 24-5-7-5.
Leipsic (0) (ab-r-h-rbi)
Quin Schroeder lf 3-0-0-0, Trey Schroeder p/cf 3-0-1-0, Tyler Sickmiller rf 3-0-0-0, Lorenzo Walther c 2-0-0-0, Adrian Carrillo 3b 0-0-0-0, Jeremy Tavarez dh 3-0-0-0, Jaden Siefker ss 3-0-0-0, Mason Brandt 2b 2-0-0-0, Blake Liffick cf/p 2-0-0-0, Kaleb Gillespie 1b 2-0-0-0. Totals 23-0-1-0.
Errors: Ebel, Liffick. PB: Walther 2. HBP: Ebel (by T. Schroeder), Binkley (by T. Schroeder), Jessee (by Liffick), Walther (by Overholt). Sac Fly: Ebel. Double: Overholt. LOB: LV 5, L 3.
Box score (r-h-e)
Lincolnview 210 000 2 - 5 7 1
Leipsic 000 000 0 - 0 1 1
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so)
Overholt (W) 7-1-0-0-0-12
T. Schroeder (L) 1.2-2-3-3-2-1
Liffick 5.1-4-2-1-1-5
Pitches/Strikes: Overholt 95/71, T. Schroeder 54/25, Liffick 76/43
Wild Pitches: T. Schroeder, Liffick
Balk: Liffick