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Whiteoak Wildcats walk off to district semifinal win over Racine Southern

The Highland County Press - Staff Photo -
The Whiteoak Wildcats celebrate after winning their Division IV district semifinal in the bottom of the seventh inning, Saturday at VA Memorial Stadium. (HCP Photos/Stephen Forsha)
By
Stephen Forsha, The Highland County Press

CHILLICOTHE — Having a tied score going into the bottom of the seventh inning, the No. 1 seeded Whiteoak Wildcats didn’t show any signs of letting their Division IV SE District Semifinal game go into extra innings, but they waited until they had one out remaining on their side until they put a bow on the game to win in walk-off fashion.

With two outs, and having David Donohoo standing at third base, Whiteoak saw senior Landon Barnett crush the ball to centerfield for the 2-1 walk-off win, sending the Wildcats to the district finals for an opportunity to defend their district championship from a season ago.

The Wildcats started the bottom of the inning with Donohoo racing to first base and called safe on a throwing error to first base. Donohoo went to second on a passed ball and was standing on third base following a groundout by Luken Roades on a 2-2 count.

Whiteoak’s Barnett walked to the plate, swung the bat and earned the RBI, and the rest was history for the Wildcats, as the win moves the Southern Hills Athletic Conference Division II champion Wildcats to 25-2 overall this season.

“I think one of the most impressive things is we surrendered the outcome. We came here today, and we didn’t think about winning or losing, we just thought about playing baseball,” WHS head coach Chris Veidt said. “David Donohoo did a lot of little things well today. He played great defense, he had an eight-pitch at-bat, and we needed it after a two-pitch, two-out situation there in the middle of the game, and he scored the winning run.

“With that being said, Landon was just outstanding. He does what your best player’s supposed to do. He pitched his hind end off until he wasn’t allowed to do it anymore. It was time to come out for a lot of reasons, and none of it was his stuff. He had the game-winning hit with everything on the line and two outs. He’s an athlete, and he’s a competitor, so those situations aren’t new, but they’re not automatic, that’s for sure.”

Whiteoak’s first run was crossed home plate in the bottom of the first with Zander Roades scoring the run off an error for the 1-0 lead. The Racine Southern Tornadoes tied the score at 1-1 with Aaron Vance rounding the bases for the run.

Southern loaded the bases in the top of the sixth with one out and scored the run off a sacrifice fly to centerfield by Damien Miller. Eventually Barnett worked his way out of the inning, striking out the batter for the third out with an off-speed pitch.

The Wildcats finished with five hits in the game, with Luken Roades, Barnett, Nate Price, Zander Roades and Solomon Combs each having one hit.

Veidt spoke about many players who stood out on Saturday.

“Solomon Combs is a kid who’s stuck with it. He’s a sophomore, he’s worked and worked and worked and wanted to play and wanted to play. He finally got his opportunity there late in the season, has come through and had an outstanding game today as well,” Veidt said. “He had a big hit, had a nice play in left field.

“The defensive play that Zander Roades had — I mean, they called the kid safe at first base, but that was a big-league play,” Veidt said about a tough play by Roades. “Those kids come to mind right now. And then just having Nate Price behind the plate, he defensively shuts people down. Landon’s got a good breaking ball, and a lot of them were in the dirt today, and Nate was an absolute beast.

“Carson Emery had some great at-bats, just couldn’t hit it through anybody tonight. He hit some balls hard, too.”

Barnett finished with a no-decision as he pitched six innings. Barnett allowed one earned run on two hits and no walks, finishing with 13 strikeouts, as he faced 30 batters.

Moon-Stone gained the win, closing out the top of the seventh inning with a strikeout, and he forced Southern to hit into a 1-6-3 double play.

“Kaden Moon-Stone coming in, in that role once again — he did it on this stage last year, he did it earlier in the week against Manchester when we needed him, and he was just outstanding, outstanding,” Veidt said.

Veidt spoke about the win and how much it means to return to the district finals.

“It means a lot because no matter what people think, no matter what your talent level is in a given year, it’s not easy to get to this point,” Veidt said. “We’ve seen some quality arms the last two games. You know how baseball’s a game of negativity, and our kids have just stuck with it and fought. It feels great to get to this point, but obviously it’s not our mecca, not the top of the mountain. We were rewarded today, that’s for sure.

“I'm so proud of these kids. Like I said, you lose a lead late like that, you've got to be thinking right to come through, and as a team they were. I'm proud of them.”

Next for Whiteoak is a Division IV SE District Final game on Monday, May 22 against the winner of Ironton St. Joseph and Portsmouth Notre Dame Titans.

(More photos will be added later.)

BOX SCORE
SHS
    000 001 0 — 1
WHS    010 000 1 — 2

 

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