Centennial beats Eastmoor to win first Columbus City League baseball title since 2011
For coach Patrick Nance and his Centennial baseball team, this was well worth the wait.
Playing in their first City League title game since 2011, the Stars overcame a 3-2 deficit after four innings and pulled away late to beat host Eastmoor Academy 12-3 on Tuesday for their seventh league championship. Centennial won back-to-back titles in 2010 and 2011.
“It’s a culmination of hard work and determination,” said Nance, who completed his ninth season. “We put ourselves in this position pre-COVID a couple of times to try and get here and came up short against really good Whetstone teams, and this year was the year that we just prevailed. It was our goal the entire season. I thought we had the talent. I thought we had the determination and the grit and that really showed today because we played a tough Eastmoor team. They played us really tough.”
Centennial finished 20-7, making Tuesday's victory important for another reason.
“We had two major goals this season,” Nance said. “We wanted to win the City League title and reach 20 wins. We did both.”
Eastmoor (14-5) was playing in its first league championship game since 1983. The Warriors last won the title in 1976.
“It was a tremendous feeling to get here,” sixth-year coach Alphonso Meadows Jr. said. “This is going to be motivation to get here next year. The last couple of innings Centennial stepped it up and we didn’t match their energy. That’s pretty much it. When you make errors and they’re scoring off errors, it hurts.”
The boxscore showed Eastmoor with eight errors in the loss.
Centennial went 14-0 in the City-North and swept the season series with perennial power Whetstone, which finished second (12-2) after winning not only the division but every league championship game since Centennial's last title.
Eastmoor won the City-South at 13-1.
The teams met once in the regular season, with Centennial winning 15-0 in five innings April 3 as sophomore Jayden Hammond and senior Tyler Bobb combined to pitch a no-hitter.
Hammond pitched a complete game in the rematch, allowing two hits while striking out 12 and walking one.
“This feels good,” Hammond said. “We hadn’t beat Whetstone in a while so we came in and swept them. I knew we could come back and win this game.”
Clinging to a two-run lead in the sixth, Bobb delivered a two-run triple to center to make it 7-3. Bobb led the Stars with three hits and three RBIs.
Aayden Johnson and Mario Blount had Eastmoor's hits.
Labron Williams pitched the first 6 ⅓ innings for Eastmoor. He allowed six hits while striking out five and walking seven.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Centennial beats Eastmoor for Columbus City League baseball title
