Brock Pfister was nearly unhittable on the mound, leading the Utica baseball team to a 3-1 win at Jonathan Alder in the second round of the Division II district tournament on Thursday, May 20, in Plain City.
Pfister allowed one earned run — which came on a Hank Shoemaker sacrifice fly in the final inning — on three hits, three walks and two hit batters. He struck out three batters over his seven innings of work for ninth-seeded Utica.
Meanwhile, Utica got a run in each of the first, second and seventh innings. Hunter Billman and Tanner Parsons did most of the damage at the plate with two hits apiece. Parsons drove in two runs and Billman had an RBI and a run for Utica.
Jon Keith was solid on the mound for the seventh-seeded Pioneers. He allowed two earned runs on nine hits and two walks with three strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings of work.
Utica hosts 10th-seeded DeSales in a district semifinal on Monday, May 24.
Fredericktown 13, Northridge 0 (5)
Caleb Sheriff drove in four runs to help host Fredericktown coast to a 13-0 win in five innings over 17th-seeded Northridge in a Division III second-round game on Thursday, May 20.
Sheriff, Ty Hatfield, Trevor Jobes and Evan Rine each scored two runs and Kaid Carpenter tossed four scoreless innings to lead the second-seeded Freddies, who will host eighth-seeded Mount Gilead.
Highland 3, River Valley 1
Highland rallied for three runs in the sixth inning to avoid an upset in the Division II district tournament with a 3-1 win over River Valley in the second round on Thursday, May 20.
The win was Highland’s 25th of the season, breaking the school record of 24 set in 2006.
Ady Carya scored the tying run and an error on a Jon Jensen sacrifice bunt allowed Zach Pinkerton to cross the plate with the go-ahead run for the second-seeded Scots in the sixth inning. KJ Johnson tripled and scored a run on Brock Church’s single to extend the lead.
Riley Gerfen gave the 16th-seeded Vikings the early lead with an RBI single in the first inning that scored Joey Dranschak, who led off the game with a walk.
Blake Jodrey went the distance, allowing one earned run on four hits and two walks with four strikeouts to get the win for Highland, which will host fifth-seeded Bishop Hartley in a district semifinal on Tuesday, May 25.
RV’s Ben Mayse was charged with three runs over 5 2/3 innings after holding Highland scoreless through five.
Columbus Academy 4, Centerburg 1
Columbus Academy plated two runs in the first inning and Centerburg couldn’t recover. The host Trojans fell, 4-1, in the second round of the Division III district tournament on Thursday, May 20.
Brady Hess struck out nine batters and allowed one earned run on two hits in a complete game to lead the ninth-seeded Vikings.
Tanner Compton and Dylan Ritzenthaler had two hits each and Finn Cassady scored twice for Academy, which added two runs in the fifth inning to create distance.
Joe Tepper was solid on the mound for the seventh-seeded Trojans, allowing two earned runs and striking out six batters.
East Knox 13, Madison Christian 0 (5)
Landon Spearman’s two-run double in the first inning gave East Knox all the runs it needed. But the Bulldogs put the game away with a nine-run second frame and rolled to a 13-0 win in five innings over Madison Christian in the second round of the Division IV district tournament on Wednesday, May 19, in Howard.
Spearman, Carson Steinmetz and Shane Knepp each had two hits to lead fifth-seeded East Knox. Knepp and Weston Melick had two runs and two RBIs each, Spearman and Cole DeLaughder each drove in a pair of runs, and Steinmetz and Peyton Lester each scored twice for the Bulldogs.
Bryar Householder and Sam Printz held the 13th-seeded Lions to just one hit.
Danville 7, Tree of Life 4
Trevor Sturgeon drove in two runs to lead Danville to a 7-4 win at Tree of Life in the second round of the Division IV district tournament on Wednesday, May 19, in Columbus.
Sturgeon and Bryce Colopy had two hits apiece; and Bryce Colopy, Kaiden Colopy and Walker Weckesser each scored two runs to lead the 10th-seeded Blue Devils, who jumped out to a 5-0 lead.
Weckesser struck out five batters and allowed four earned runs over six innings to get the win over the 10th-seeded Trojans.
Danville travels to top-seeded Fisher Catholic in a district semifinal on Tuesday, May 25.
SOFTBALL
Host Cardington used some two-out magic with a little help to capture its fifth consecutive district title with a 2-1 victory over West Jefferson in Division III play on Wednesday, May 19.
Hailee Edgell hit a two-out single in the fifth inning. A small beginning, but Guinevere Longsdorf followed with a double, setting up the game-winning run that Edgell scored on a passed ball a pitch later.
Longsdorf retired six of the final eight batters to preserve the victory for the top-seeded Pirates. The freshman scattered 12 hits and struck out eight batters in the complete-game victory.
Longsdorf, Dana Bertke and Ashlee Tharp each had two hits to lead the Pirates.
Myra Harper went 3-for-3; and Brooke Mannon struck out 10 and allowed two earned runs, taking the loss for the fifth-seeded Roughriders.
Cardington meets the winner of Saturday’s New Riegel district championship between top-seeded Huron and second-seeded Milan Edison in a regional semifinal on Wednesday, May 26, at Elida High School.
Correction: a previous version of this story misidentified Kaid Carpenter as Kaid Cunningham. The News regrets this error.
