Zane Trace secures a sectional title after beating Westfall for the third time this season

CHILLICOTHE — After earning a share of the SVC title, the Zane Trace Pioneers added another championship to their impressive season after defeating the Westall Mustangs in the sectional finals.

Their 13-3 victory marked the third time that the Pioneers had defeated the Mustangs this year, a feat that the team recognizes is difficult to achieve.

"I am really proud of our team for making it this far," Pioneers' center fielder, Blake Phillips said. "It is always tough beating a team three times. So, it is great that we were able to beat them again, especially for the sectional championship."

The Mustangs struck first after opening the inning with back-to-back hits. Their leadoff batter, Trent Walters scored the game's opening run.

It was not long before the Pioneers began to score runs of their own after they got four in the same inning.

Those runs included an RBI single by Trey Edler and a run by Phillips after a sac-fly by Jagger Stauffer.

While Zane Trace did a nice job of making plays of their own, it did not hurt that Westfall committed three errors. Those errors played a role in two of the runs that Zane Trace scored.

After what ended up being a night where the team committed double-digit errors, Mustangs' coach, Trevor Thomas said that it is not something a team can do and expect positive results.

"If you have 11 errors, you deserve to lose," Thomas said. "We have a lot of young players this season. We want them to understand how this loss feels and that they do not want to be in this situation. Hopefully, they can learn from this and move forward."

Zane Trace had another four-run inning in the second, where ill-timed mistakes plagued Westfall's defense again. Of those runs, the only run that came from the former's bat was after an RBI single by Drew Lane.

Though Pioneers' coach Ron Allen did not complain about his team's runs, he recognized that the score did not reflect the team's actual performance.

"Our team did not hit the ball very well, but we were helped out by Westfall's errors," Allen said. "Still, we were able to get hits in key situations which helped us to stretch the lead a bit."

By the third inning, the Mustangs' offense was back on the scoreboard after a two-RBI single by Bryant Coker.

As the momentum began to shift, it showed that hope was not all lost for them as they started to chip away at the Pioneers' lead.

However, it was not long before Zane Trace was back to their scoring ways.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, they scored three more runs after RBIs by Lane, Brooks Hodson, and Rece Allen.

The fifth inning was another productive showing for the group after adding two more runs which ended the game and put them one step closer to the team's biggest preseason goal.

"We want to win a district title," Allen said. "That is the goal here every year. Everything else on top of that, we will take it whenever we get there. So, we just have to see what happens and go out there and play well on Wednesday."

As for Westfall, the high school careers of the team's five seniors Peyton Weiss, Ashton Nunemaker, Hunter McCoy, Dillon Walisa, and Hunter Wright have come to an end.

However, Coach Thomas believes that the young men are primed to be successful in life.

"They have all have been with us for four years," Thomas said. "Then when you think about the year that they lost to COVID, these guys have battled through so much adversity. I am so proud of them and I know that because of all of the adversity, they will become great young men.

This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: Zane Trace is headed to the district semifinals with Westfall sweep