'Resilient' Sandy Valley High School baseball comes up short of OHSAA district title

BOWERSTON — Sandy Valley's ride through the district championship game roared into the late innings with the Cardinals in command.

It ended with a 10-6 loss that left the boys still in their dugout, quieter than the Conotton Valley Hills, while Barnesville celebrated a trip to the OHSAA Division IV baseball sweet 16.

"I'm upset it's over," fourth-year Sandy Valley head coach Andy Rasicci said when he stepped away from his players, his face and voice telling more than his words.

Rasicci experienced memories for a lifetime playing baseball for the Green Bulldogs.

His Cardinals took him back to when he was a pitcher and third baseman for Green High School.

Beating Hoover to make the sweet 16 in 2006 was a major thrill. Losing to Lake in the district finals in his senior year of 2007 was a big bummer.

"It's something I think about to this day," he said.

Wednesday was a day of days for Sandy Valley, which hoped to make the sweet 16 in baseball for the first time in school history.

The Magnolia-Waynesburg-Sandyville-East Sparta area has produced numerous good players and teams. Many associate the Sandy Valley program with Luke Izer, who led the nation with a .495 batting average while at Baldwin-Wallace before becoming a long-time head coach of the Cardinals.

"Coach Izer had a lot of great teams and accomplished a tremendous amount," Rasicci said, "but we've never gotten a district championship in baseball."

Wednesday's opportunity was picturesque, a short hop from Leesville Lake, with the sun peeking in and out of clouds while the game unfolded on artificial turf in a slick Conotton Valley athletic complex fueled by natural gas money.

Sandy Valley's enthusiastic crowd — spread in stadium seats, bleachers, lawn chairs and hillside grass — could taste it.

Bo Bernower singled and Nick Petro walked to start a three-run third inning. Chandler Humphrey's textbook bunt moved them up. Drew Graybill smoked a foul ball to right, stood in with two strikes, then rapped a two-run single up the middle.

Barnesville rallied behind senior Reese Stephen, a tough-guy, two-time state wrestling champion at the 150-pound weight class, headed for Cleveland State on scholarship. His two-run double to the left-center gap pulled the Shamrocks to within 3-2.

In the top of the fifth, Sandy Valley cleanup man Luke Williams legged out an infield single, then ran through a stop sign to get to third base on a one-out base hit by Bransen Long. Williams scored when Thorn Stenger hustled to avoid a double play on a ground ball.

It was 4-2, with nine outs to the sweet 16.

Long, a freshman, was the starting pitcher. He threw effectively to the first two hitters in the bottom of the fifth, inducing weak grounders from Max Miller and Caleb Powell. Unfortunately, they were so weak that they leaked into infield hits.

The rest of the inning was a nightmare. Stephen, Jaxon Wiley and Taison Starr, all smacked legit hits. The Cardinals made three throwing errors. Barnesville scored six runs and led 8-4.

"This team has been so resilient all year," Rasicci said. "I expected a big inning after that, and we had one going.

"The guys really came together this year. They put in extra work on their own time. They wanted to work. I don't think you can say that about every team out there."

The Cardinal lineup was a mix of freshmen through seniors.

Petro, a senior, was one of the better three-sport athletes to come through the school.

Brian Gamble, the baseball coach before Rasicci, coached Petro in football and thought he would have been a strong college quarterback.

Petro considered college football but signed with Walsh as a baseball player.

"I think he's the best baseball player in this area," Gamble said.

As a pitcher, Petro was 5-0 with a 0.55 earned run average.

"He's been unbelieveable on the mound," Rasicci said. "As our leadoff hitter, he's scored a ridiculous amount of runs, and his on-base percentage is .625."

Graybill, who has a strong chance to follow Petro into Sandy Valley's quarterback position, has blossomed as a sophomore catcher.

"He's phenomenal on defense and hits around .400," Rasicci said.

Petro and Graybill were front and center in a classic example of baseball caprices.

The Cardinals were in that 8-4 hole, but they had handled pressure all year. They beat defending state champion Berlin Hiland. They nabbed an 11-10, extra-inning win over Rasicci's alma mater, Green.

Trey Nicholson and Bernower led off the sixth with singles. Petro hit the ball sharply and reached on an error by the second baseman. Humphrey walked to force in a run.

Bases loaded. Nobody out. Graybill, the No. 3 hitter in the lineup, stepping in.

Minutes earlier, Barnesville built weak infield singles into a six-run inning. In Sandy Valley's opportunity, Graybill smoked a ball into the warm evening air, but it was in the path of the center fielder for an out.

Bernow tagged and scored to make it 8-6. Petro tagged and went to third, but instead of runners at the corners with one out, Petro was ruled to have left early. The appeal killed the rally.

No longer facing the pressure of being caught by the Cardinals, Barnesville tacked on two runs and advanced to the regional finals against perennial power Wheelersburg.

Barnesville is in Belmont County coal country, 60 miles south of Magnolia on Route 800.

Head coach D.J. Butler grew up in Cadiz, played college ball at Bethany, and has come to know Barnesville well in 17 years.

"It's a strong community, and it's a sports town," he said. "The park is packed with youth baseball in the summer."

The Shamrocks went to the final four in 2021. What of facing state No. 1-ranked Wheelersburg in the next game?

"Nothing to lose," Butler said. "It's bonus baseball."

Stephen, Barnesville's wrestling champion and senior leader, doesn't plan to lose.

"Sandy Valley was a good team," he said. "We did what it took to win. If we're playing a No. 1 next, that's who we're playing. It's just a number."

Sandy Valley so looked forward to the first baseball sweet 16 in school history. That No. 1 would have meant a lot.

Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Barnesville High School baseball beats Sandy Valley in district final