Grove City edges Lancaster in another classic district final, 2-0 in eight innings
UPPER ARLINGTON — Lancaster and Grove City are getting used to playing instant classics, and this year’s Division I Central District championship game was not different.
A year ago, the Golden Gales came away with a 2-1, 11-inning thriller over the Greyhounds to win their third consecutive district championship.
The 2022 version had all the makings of another nail-biter, only this one took two extra days. After playing 6 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball on Thursday at Olentangy Orange High School before the rains halted the game, it was resumed on Saturday at Upper Arlington High School.
Neither team scored in the sixth or seventh innings, but Grove City (22-5) was able to come up with a pair of runs in the top of the eighth inning and then left two Lancaster (21-6) runners stranded in the bottom half of the eighth to come away with a gut-wrenching 2-0 win, giving the Greyhounds their first district championship since 2014.
Grove City will face Hilliard Darby at 2 p.m. Thursday in a regional semifinal at Dublin Coffman High School.
“We knew what we were getting ourselves into if we had to play Lancaster again,” Grove City coach Ryan Alexander said. “I’ve watched coach (Corey) Conn take that program from a struggling team to a complete powerhouse in Central Ohio, so I know how hard he has worked to build that, and we have the utmost respect for that program.
“After last year, losing the way we did in 11 innings, and feeling like we should have won, it feels great to get this one, especially since we haven’t won a district title for a while now.”
The Greyhounds started the eighth inning off with a double from Grady Speegle off Lancaster starter Layton O’Rourke. Braylon Boggs came into pinch run for Speegle, and with two outs, Trent Ruffing laid down a perfect bunt and was able to barely beat the throw to first, which allowed Boggs to score.
After Keegan Holmstrom walked, Jackson Ware hit a bloop single to left field and Lancaster’s Riley Poston came up firing, but Ruffing was called safe on a bang-bang play to give Grove City a 2-0 lead.
Lancaster threatened in the bottom of the inning as Dom Bornino led off with a single, but the Greyhounds turned a double play. Ajay Locke then reached on an error and Harrison Allen followed with an infield single, but Ware, who pitched all three innings, was able to end the threat with a pop-out to first base.
“We were confident coming in and our guys knew that they had played well (on Thursday) and we knew we had two really good pitchers we could go to,” Conn said. “We were right there. We had a couple of hard-hit balls that kind of found gloves, and that’s baseball. “You knew going in, this kind of had that feeling again like last year that it was going to go on for a while. When you face Grove City, you always know you are going to be in for a battle, but I’m proud of the way our guys fought.”
On Thursday, Bornino was pitching a no-hitter through the first 5 1/3 innings, and the Greyhounds, Holmstrom had only given up one hit, a leadoff single to Tony Falvo.
“Those two were on fire Thursday night and both of them were dealing,” Alexander said. “We really value ourselves as a great hitting team, and to have zero hits, we weren’t in really in a good place, mentally, leaving there, so to come back and battle like we did, getting the two days enabled us to recharge a little bit.”
Tom Wilson is a sports reporter for the Lancaster Eagle Gazette. Contact him at 740-689-5150 or via email at twilson@gannett.com for comments or story tips. Follow him on Twitter @twil2323.
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Grove City edges Lancaster in another classic district final
