New Philadelphia's district title streak halted by No. 1 seed St. Clairsville

CADIZ — Tradition-rich New Philadelphia baseball, a two-time defending district champion, had its title streak stopped Wednesday evening as No. 1 seed St. Clairsville bested the fifth-seeded Quakers, 5-1, in a DII district title game at Harrison Central’s Mazeroski Field.

With the setback, the Quakers, who won a sectional title last week and also finished as runner-up to Mount Vernon in the rugged Ohio Cardinal Conference this spring, closed their season with a 15-7 record.

“We battled and fought, our team never stepped back, it just didn’t go our way today,” said New Philadelphia head coach Tyler Weisel. “These guys have nothing to hang their heads (about). There’s a lot of history in this dugout right now — three times back to the district championship game.”

“(New Philadelphia) is a very good baseball team that’s ended our season a couple times and we talked about that, and we thought maybe this was our turn,” said St. Clairsville head coach Tom Sliva, whose team lost to the Quakers 8-3 in the district semifinals last season.

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With the win, the Red Devils upped their ledger to 26-3.

Wednesday’s 5-1 final score is a bit deceiving. The Quakers and Red Devils hooked up in a low-scoring pitcher’s duel through five innings as the Quakers’ Sam Rufenacht and the Devils’ Hunter Hoffman, both left-handers, displayed their pitching prowess.

Hoffman earned the complete-game win, striking out six and walking none.

Rufenacht absorbed the setback, working 5-2/3 innings, striking out six and walking six while tossing a four-hitter. The Quakers’ Gavin Blake retired the only batter he faced in relief.

“Hunter Hoffman and Sam (Rufenacht), I’ve got to tip my cap to both of them, they were electric today,” Weisel said.

“I can’t say enough about the job Hunter did on the mound,” St. Clairsville’s Sliva said.

As it turned out, the only runs scored in the game occurred in the first and last innings of the contest.

The Quakers actually outhit the Red Devils, 7-4. New Philadelphia offensive stat leaders were Owen Courtney (double and an RBI), Braylon McBride (double), Gavin Blake (two singles) and Mason Caterina, Keaton Fausel and Carson Long, all with singles.

New Philadelphia took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when leadoff hitter McBride smashed a double to deep center field and scored when No. 3 hitter Courtney doubled into left field.

But St. Clairsville answered in the bottom half of the first inning, scoring two runs on just one hit. The Red Devils loaded the bases on three walks, and Caleb Keenan stepped to the plate and laced a two-RBI single to right, as the Red Devils took a 2-1 advantage.

“We got some key hits, and we did some nice things defensively,” Sliva said of his team, which committed just one error to two miscues for the Quakers.

The score remained 2-1 until the bottom of the sixth. Rufenacht retired the first two batters in the frame, but St. Clairsville’s Keenan hit a bloop single to right, moved up on a walk and scored on an RBI single to center, upping their advantage to 3-1. The Red Devils added another single and plated two insurance runs on a passed ball and a wild pitch to suddenly take a 5-1 lead.

But the Quakers refused to go away and loaded the bases on three straight singles by Fausel, Blake and Long in the top of the seventh inning. After Hoffman recorded a strikeout, the Quakers’ Mac Steele followed with a fly ball out to center in which the Quaker base runner at third raced home for an apparent run. However, the umpires ruled he left early and called him out, abruptly ending the game.

When asked about the game-ending call, Weisel said, “I’ve got no comment on that.”

”We gathered ourselves (when the bases were loaded),” St. Clairsville’s Sliva said. “We talked to them on the mound, talked about the situation, and they understood what we needed to do, and they buckled down and did it.”

With the win, St. Clairsville advanced to Division II regional semifinal action next Thursday at 5 p.m. against fourth-seeded Indian Creek. Indian Creek ousted No. 2-seeded Tri-Valley 1-0 in its district title game Wednesday. The St. Clairsville-Indian Creek game will mark the fourth time the two teams have played this season.

Meanwhile, Weisel’s Quakers return seven of nine starters next spring in what should be another promising season.

“Another great season, we keep setting the bar higher,” the Quakers’ coach said. “As a coach, that’s all you want, and keep driving that work ethic, and that’s what we have.”

But the New Philadelphia skipper added they are losing two valuable players in their program in graduating seniors Noah Bollon and Gavin Blake.

“Our two seniors, Noah Bollon and Gavin Blake, they’re everything we’ve ever needed, and we’re indebted to what they’ve done for the program,” Weisel said. “They were our emotional leaders, they were our backbone, so it’s going to be tough to see them go.”

ST. CLAIRSVILLE 5, NEW PHILADELPHIA 1

New Philadelphia   100 000 0 —  1 7 2

St. Clairsville          200 003 X — 5 4 1

Sam Rufenacht (5-2/3), Gavin Blake (1/3) and Noah Bollon. Hunter Hoffman and Marcus Bush. WP — Hunter Hoffman. LP — Sam Rufenacht. 2B — Braylon McBride (NP), Owen Courtney (NP). 3B — none. HR — none.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: New Philadelphia baseball falls to St. Clairsville in DII district title