Federal Feud: GlenOak and Jackson to meet in OHSAA baseball district final, key league game
MACEDONIA — The GlenOak and Jackson high school baseball teams will get to know each other awfully well this week.
The Golden Eagles and Polar Bears punched their tickets to Thursday's Division I district final with semifinal wins Tuesday at Nordonia's Bernie Hovan Memorial Field. GlenOak beat the host Knights 7-6 in a seesaw first game, followed by Jackson jumping on Louisville early and cruising to a 6-0 win in the second game.
The Golden Eagles (14-12) and Polar Bears (21-7) will meet back at Nordonia for the 4 p.m. Thursday final, then face each other again on Friday at 5 p.m. at GlenOak for a regular-season game with all kinds of Federal League ramifications.
First thing first. Here's how Jackson and GlenOak advanced Tuesday.
Big hits key GlenOak win vs. Nordonia in first district semifinal
GlenOak coach Ray Frisbee said tournament baseball is about trading punches.
Well, in that case, Jackson Boles and Bryce Broom delivered the biggest blows Tuesday.
Boles' fourth-inning grand slam completely flipped a game that had been controlled by Nordonia to that point, and Broom's RBI double broke a 5-5 tie in the top of the seventh. No. 12 seed GlenOak, which earned the 800th win in program history, advances to its first district final since 2013.
The Golden Eagles fell behind 4-1 after three innings, with three errors contributing to three of Nordonia's run.
Then the lefty-swinging Boles, who had doubled and scored earlier in the game, turned on a fastball and cleared the bases with a blast to right-center. A reenergized GlenOak team spilled onto the field in celebration.
"I'm not going to lie and say it wasn't the best feeling in the world," Boles said. "I wanted to be there for my teammates because the entire season they've had my back. To come up big and put us up in that situation and to see our whole team get some life and energy back in the dugout, that was probably a better feeling than the home run."
No. 10 seed Nordonia tied the game in the sixth, with a GlenOak error in the outfield allowing pinch runner Danny Ours to score all the way from first on Vinny Hack's hit.
GlenOak answered right back with Broom's line-drive double into the right field gap scoring Kyle Moff from first base, giving the Golden Eagles a 6-5 lead in the seventh.
Broom had just failed to get a bunt down to move Moff over, and he wanted to make amends.
"I was kind of mad at myself," said Broom, who also drove in a run with a fielder's choice in the third inning. "I didn't hit the best today and I missed the bunt. I had to do something to move him over, so I said I'm going to swing as hard as I can, and it worked out."
Two batters later, Quincy Mazeke's sacrifice fly scored Broom for an important insurance run to make it 7-5.
It was important because Nordonia got a run back on Owen Smotek's RBI fielder's choice in the bottom half of the seventh. The Knights had the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with two outs when Johnathan Birchler produced a strikeout to end the game.
Birchler got the final two outs to earn his first save of the season, then joined his fellow seniors at GlenOak's graduation ceremony later Tuesday. Ben Sibert (5-2), coming off a no-hitter last week in GlenOak's sectional semifinal vs. Solon, gutted through 6.1 innings in mid-80s heat to get the win. The junior allowed the six runs (two earned) on seven hits while walking one and striking out four as GlenOak knocked Nordonia out of the tournament for the second straight year.
"We've been hot and cold throughout the season," Frisbee said. "But the biggest thing is anytime we put those two on the mound, we've got a heckuva chance to win. They're going to fight for us and give us every opportunity to win."
Birchler is eligible to come back and start against Jackson on Thursday. He, Boles and Jerry Alexander had two hits apiece for GlenOak on Tuesday.
Nordonia's Matt Janosek took the loss, pitching 2.1 innings in relief of starter Dash Lanzilotta.
The Knights, who have a regular-season game left to complete Suburban League play, fell to 17-11. But head coach Drew Hoisington was far from downtrodden afterwards.
"It was a lot of fun," he said with a smile. "I think that game is what makes high school baseball great, especially this time of year."
Hoisington is stepping away from coaching after leading the Knights for the last 12 years to focus on his family.
"We kind of put Nordonia on the precipice of baseball being important here," Hoisington said. "When I got here, it wasn't. That's something I'm very proud of and I'm very proud of all the guys that have come through here and worked. We've built a good foundation, and it needs to keep going after me."
Jackson jumps on Louisville quickly in second district semifinal
After the drama of GlenOak-Nordonia, Jackson took the air out of Tuesday's second semifinal with a four-run first. Kyle Benson's RBI single and Kyle Andrew's RBI double highlighted the quick start.
"It's big because seven innings is a sprint," Jackson head coach Bill Gamble said. "It's not college baseball or pro ball where you're playing nine innings. You're trying to get out and get crooked numbers any way you can. And that was against two really good arms. Our goal was to see both of them because that meant we got the starter out."
Louisville starter Zach Root (5-2) lasted just the first inning in taking the loss. Fellow senior Cole Miller pitched the final five innings and kept the Leopards in the game.
Picking between Root and Miller was a tough decision for Louisville head coach Brian Warner. He went with Root, calling him "our most consistent guy all year."
"He hasn't given up big innings. But then they get a big inning," Warner said. "Shoulda, woulda, coulda. Cole comes in and he threw extremely well, like I thought he would. That's just the game of baseball. I love Zach to death and I felt super confident with him out there."
Carter Mottice finished with a pair of singles and a run scored for No. 1 seed Jackson. Wyatt Fether went 2-for-3, including a two-run single in the fifth inning that felt like the knockout punch to No. 11 seed Louisville.
Jackson starter Landon Thiel and relivers Jeffrey Oister, Cole Baker and Carson Pastorius combined on the four-hit shutout. Thiel, a sophomore lefty, struck out eight and allowed three hits in 4.2 innings to get the win and improve to 7-1.
"That's a really dangerous lineup we kept off the scoreboard today," said Gamble, whose Polar Bears advance to their first district final since winning six straight district championships from 2014-19.
Louisville had its chances, getting at least one runner on in each of the first six innings. But Jackson escaped each time, including Baker entering in a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the sixth and wiggling out with no damage.
Louisville, which was in a Division II regional final two years ago and a Division I district final last year, finishes 18-9 this season.
"To make the districts two years in a row in D1, that's a big deal for us," Warner said. "I told them it's something they should be extremely proud of. They've definitely raised the bar for the program. The torch has been passed down these last two years with the senior groups, and these guys did an amazing job continuing that."
Figuring out the Federal League
As far as the Federal League goes, Jackson (9-2) already has clinched a share of the league title and can win it outright by beating GlenOak on Friday in its league finale. A GlenOak win would keep its own hopes and the hopes of Hoover alive. Both are 7-3. GlenOak has the game against Jackson and a game against Hoover left. Hoover has the GlenOak game left and a suspended game against Lake to finish.
GlenOak and Jackson haven't played since April 3, a 9-1 Polar Bears win at home.
"We're in one-game mode," Gamble said. "Our concentration is on Thursday, and then we'll talk about Friday when we get up Friday morning."
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This article originally appeared on The Repository: OHSAA baseball districts, GlenOak vs Nordonia, Jackson vs Louisville
