BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — By the skin of their collective teeth, the Whitmer Panthers survived for a 9-8 victory over Northview on Thursday at Bowling Green's Carter Park to advance to this weekend's Division I district baseball finals.
The Panthers (19-7), who avenged two league losses to Northern Lakes League Buckeye Division champion Northview, will face St. Francis de Sales (18-11) in the district final, which will be played Saturday at 7 p.m. or Sunday at 3 p.m.
St. Francis has graduation at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
The Knights advanced by blanking Anthony Wayne 4-0 in Thursday night's second semifinal at Carter Park. Junior Colin Hennessey (6-1) pitched a three-hit shutout for St. Francis.
For any fans that left the first semifinal early, they might not believe what took place before Whitmer finally secured its victory on a game-ending strikeout thrown by reliever Camden Drabek on a bases-loaded 3-2 pitch to the Wildcats' Roman McKarus.
Northview (20-7), the No. 2 district seed, trailed 9-2 with two outs and nobody on base in the bottom of the seventh batting against Whitmer starter Cory Viola.
The Panthers' senior lefty had held the Wildcats to two runs on four hits to that point, and was one out away from a complete-game victory when disaster nearly sidelined his team from the D-I tournament.
Viola was the beneficiary of an abundant Panther offense that banged out 12 of its 14 hits in the game against one of northwest Ohio's top pitchers — Northview's University of Toledo-bound senior right-hander Vin Bentley — before chasing him five batters into a five-run top of the seventh inning.
Bentley entered with an 8-0 record and just nine total runs allowed in 56 innings.
“Bentley's a great pitcher and we put the ball in play,” Whitmer coach Mark Rabbitt said. “We had a good game plan against him. I'm really proud of what we did. We didn't do all the little things right, like get bunts down, but we did everything else we needed to.
Viola's cushion had gone from 4-2 to 9-2 in the top of seventh, when he and his teammates seemed destined to have plenty of time to get to Whitmer's graduation ceremonies.
By the time the fire was extinguished, the Panthers from the Class of 2024 were dashing to the parking lot to get to graduation.
Whitmer's five-run top of the seventh included five hits, the biggest being Joaquin Janatowski's three-run double down the right-field line.
But, after Viola (seven strikeouts) retired the second Northview batter in the bottom of the seventh, he walked McKarus, hit a batter, and walked another before Rabbitt sent center fielder Sean Doran in to relieve.
Doran yielded back-to-back singles to Connor Draper (RBI) and Christian Berling (2 RBI), then walked Keegen Draper to load the bases.
He then induced Charlie Paulson into what seemed to be a game-ending infield pop-up. But Panthers third baseman Drabek, fighting the sun and wind, dropped the ball near the mound while two Wildcats runs scored and got Northview within 9-7.
Doran then walked Josh Sprenger to reload the bases, and was relieved by Drabek, who walked Carson Holmes to force in a run to make it 9-8.
“Cory [Viola] was great until the very end, and then he lost it,” Rabbitt said. “I probably should've pulled him a batter before, but I didn't. I made the wrong decision, and then we almost gave this game up.
“It was tremendously nerve-racking — 3-2 count, they're running, and a base hit wins the game for them. But I knew Cam [Drabek] could do it. He's a tough pitcher.”
Northview's near miracle comeback fell one pitch shy when Drabek fanned McKarus on a high-drama 3-2 pitch.
“It's always crazy in tournament time in northwest Ohio,” Northview coach Aaron Tullis said. “That's a really good baseball team, and well coached. Cory Viola pitched a great game, and our kids were resilient. They battled, and they're battled-tested. We had an eight-run comeback earlier this year, and they're never going to quit.
“That's baseball. Tip your hat to [Drabek] for making a great pitch. Roman battled. I'll take him any day of the week in that situation.”
This game was a far cry from the first NLL meeting between the teams, when Bentley outdueled Viola in a 1-0 Northview win in a game that had just four combined hits. Northview then beat Whitmer 16-6 in their second league contest.
Whitmer's Brody Lajiness (3-for-5), Connor Barber (3-for-4), and Janatowski led the attack.
In the second semifinal, St. Francis got the only run it would need in the top of the third inning when Nick Hood led off with a single, was bunted over by Derek Dzienny, and scored on an AW error.
The Knights got two more unearned runs in the fifth inning off Generals starter Braden Curry, with Joey Meredith (3-for-3, two doubles) driving in one with a double to right, and Mana Bublick getting the other RBI on a bases-loaded walk.
St. Francis scored an insurance run (also unearned) in the seventh. Gabe Lisowski reached on an error, got to third on Meredith's double to the left-center gap, and scored on Bublick's sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.
“We wanted to be aggressive with the great starting pitcher [Curry] they had, and we were able to get some hits, play some small ball, and get some runs,” Knights coach Bobby Edgell said. “We kept pushing the issue and adding to the lead.
“[Hennessey] throws strikes and he doesn't walk anyone. That's why he's effective. That is the key to high school baseball — you have to throw strikes. That's exactly what he did.”
Hennessey, the son of Whitmer grad and former major league pitcher Brad Hennessey, did the rest.
“I just focused on throwing strikes and trusting my defense,” Hennessey said. “They did a great job backing me up. I usually try to work quick, and that keeps the defense on their toes. We really want to bring home a district title.”
Hennessey struck out just two batters, walked two, and hit a batter.
“Their pitcher had a great game,” AW coach Ryan Donley said. “I really like his demeanor, he works quick, and he's confident with his pitches. He did a really nice job. He didn't have a whole lot of strikeouts, but he mixed his pitches well, and kept us off-balance. We didn't catch a lot of barrels today.
“Sometimes you've got to tip your cap. They had a really good plan, and today they were the better team.”
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