NEW CONCORD – The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat are more amplified in the tournament.
The Fredericktown baseball team had the thrill of victory in its grasp but instead felt the agony of defeat in a 3-2 loss to Barnesville in a marathon 12-inning Division III regional semifinal on Friday, June 4, at Mose Morehead Field at Muskingum University.
Trevor Jobes broke a 1-1 tie with an RBI single to score Caleb Sheriff in the top of the 12th inning to give the Freddies the lead.
But the Shamrocks rallied in the bottom half and ended it on a Logan Shepherd walk-off single to advance.
“I’m just heartbroken for these seniors,” Fredericktown coach Ryan Hathaway said. “You can’t ask for guys to fight any harder than they did. They just found a way late. It was a really good game. I wish it would have turned out different. I just wish we would have made a few more plays than we did at the end.”
“I just told the boys that even if we came out on the other side, that was the single best baseball game I’ve ever been a part of,” Barnesville coach DJ Butler said. “You’ve gotta tip your hat to Fredericktown and their pitchers. They were outstanding.”
Lincoln Cunningham was brilliant over eight innings of work in his final high school game. He allowed one earned run on five hits and four walks with three strikeouts for the Freddies.
Kaid Carpenter, who presumably would have started the Freddies’ regional final game the following day had they won, struck out seven batters — including two with the winning run on second base in the 11th inning.
“They pitched great,” Hathaway said of Cunningham and Carpenter. “To work out of the innings they worked out of says a lot about them.”
Had the Freddies won, Ty Hatfield would have gotten the ball in the regional final.
“(Cunningham) did exactly what we needed there,” Hathaway said. “Once we went to Carp, we were hoping it would stay under one inning or maybe two. Trying to get to tomorrow was the biggest thing for us. We were all in, and then piece it together tomorrow.”
Carpenter couldn’t wiggle out of trouble in the following inning when Ayden Hannahs led off with a double and Jeremy Hunkler followed with a single.
Jake Edwards drove home Hannahs with a groundout. With the winning run on third, Gavin Carpenter and Kyvan Johnson were intentionally walked, setting up Shepherd’s game-winner.
Almost three hours earlier, Hannahs led off the bottom of the first inning with a single, stole second and moved to third on a wild pitch. With Johnson batting, Hannahs took off for home plate as Hatfield — Fredericktown’s catcher — threw the ball back to the pitcher, an act that happens routinely throughout any baseball game. Cunningham caught and threw back home in one motion, but Hannahs beat it to give the Shamrocks a 1-0 lead.
“That’s just their best player making a play,” Hathaway said. “That was the first inning of the game. I thought we bounced back from that.”
Fredericktown was disciplined at the plate, making Hannahs — Barnesville’s starting pitcher — throw close to 50 pitches over the first two innings.
The Freddies loaded the bases in the second inning on three walks but couldn’t come through with the big hit.
Hannahs held the Freddies hitless for 4 1/3 innings, but he walked six batters along the way.
In a bit of redemption, Hatfield finally broke the seal with a single in the fifth inning. An out later and facing a 3-2 count, Sheriff fouled off three pitches before lining a double to right. Hatfield was running on the pitch and scored from first base to tie the game, where it remained for the next six innings.
It was Sheriff’s only hit of the game. He was walked four times — twice intentionally — as Barnesville tried to keep the bat out of his hands.
“(Sheriff) is second-team all-state for a reason,” Butler said. “We decided to make somebody else beat us. Their four-hitter (Jobes) almost did.”
“We just really couldn’t find a hit,” Hathaway said. “It’s unlike us to only have five hits. It seemed like every ball we hit went right to them. Anything we hit hard kind of died in the outfield. We just didn’t get enough.”
Hannahs finally reached his pitch count with two outs in the seventh inning. Kason Powell took over from there and allowed one earned run on four hits and four walks with three strikeouts to earn the win for the Shamrocks.
Eight seniors — Cunningham, Hatfield, Sheriff, Reese Cassetto, Evan Rine, Zach Vogelsang, Luke Currier and Mason Finnell — were part of three district championships for the Freddies, who had won four in a row.
“They’ve done everything I’ve ever asked of them,” Hathaway said. “It’s tough right now. They set the standard of what’s expected of our upperclassmen. All we ask is that they leave it in a better place than where they found it, and they’ve done exactly that.”
