OHSAA District Final
Bishop Fenwick 5, Urbana 2
The Urbana Hillclimber season came to an abrupt and heartbreaking end Saturday as Bishop Fenwick scored five runs in the top of the seventh inning to erase a two-run deficit and capture a 5-2 victory in the OHSAA District Final.
What started as a classic pitcher’s duel between two aces turned into late-inning drama, as Ohio State commit Grady Lantz and Bishop Fenwick left-hander Carter Shouse traded zeros for much of the afternoon before the Falcons erupted in their final inning.
Lantz got off to a strong start, retiring the first two batters he faced in the opening inning before allowing a two-out single. He quickly recovered with a strikeout to end the threat. Shouse matched him in the bottom half, retiring the Hillclimbers in order as the game remained scoreless.
Lantz worked around a two-out walk in the second inning, while Urbana mounted its first threat in the bottom half. Tate Lantz and Jackson Stacy drew back-to-back walks with one out, but Shouse responded by striking out the final two hitters of the inning to strand both runners.
The Falcons put pressure on Lantz in the third. A leadoff hit batter and another hit-by-pitch with two outs put runners aboard, but on an 0-2 count, a Bishop Fenwick hitter lined a ball directly at shortstop Brody Donahoe, who made the catch to end the inning. Shouse answered with another dominant frame, striking out the side as the score remained 0-0.
Both pitchers continued to deal through the fourth and fifth innings. Lantz retired the Falcons in order in the fourth and worked around an Urbana error in the fifth, while Shouse struck out two in the fourth and recorded his third strikeout-the-side inning in the fifth. Through five innings, neither team had managed to push across a run.
The game nearly turned in the sixth inning.
Lantz battled command issues, issuing a leadoff walk and hitting the next batter to put two runners aboard with nobody out. After a mound visit, Bishop Fenwick attempted a sacrifice bunt, but Lantz made a tremendous defensive play, fielding the bunt and firing to third baseman Colton Roberts to erase the lead runner.
After recording a strikeout for the second out of the inning, a balk moved both runners into scoring position. But with danger looming, Lantz induced a ground ball right back to the mound and calmly tossed to first to escape the jam and keep the game scoreless.
In the bottom of the sixth, Roberts reached when a difficult backhand play by the Falcon third baseman resulted in an errant throw. Carter Houseman followed with a bunt back to the mound, and another Fenwick throwing error allowed Roberts to score the game’s first run while Houseman advanced to second.
After Shouse recorded a strikeout for the first out of the inning, Houseman was caught attempting to steal third on a perfect throw from the catcher, clearing the bases. It didn’t matter.
On a 1-0 pitch, Grady Lantz turned on a fastball and launched it to straightaway center field for a solo home run. The Ohio State commit rounded the bases with plenty of emotion as Urbana suddenly owned a 2-0 lead and stood just three outs away from a district championship.
But the Falcons had one final answer.
A leadoff single and a walk immediately put pressure on Lantz in the seventh. After a successful sacrifice bunt moved both runners into scoring position, Lantz issued another walk to load the bases. He then walked in a run, trimming the Urbana lead to 2-1.
Moments later, Bishop Fenwick’s Jackson Kauffman delivered the biggest hit of the afternoon, driving a ball into the right-center field gap for a two-run double that gave the Falcons their first lead of the game at 3-2.
That ended Lantz’s afternoon, but the Falcons weren’t finished.
With Tate Lantz entering in relief, a rundown developed between third base and home on the first pitch he threw. The Falcons executed it perfectly, as Isaac Barker avoided the tag at the plate and stole home to extend the lead.
Kauffman later scored on a ball that was bobbled at second base, capping a five-run inning and giving Bishop Fenwick a 5-2 advantage heading into the bottom of the seventh.
Now it was Shouse’s turn to finish what he started.
The Falcon ace struck out Tate Lantz and Bentley Cordial to begin the inning before inducing a groundout from Jackson Stacy to end the game and secure the district championship.
Shouse was brilliant, tossing a one-hit complete game. Neither run charged against him was earned as he allowed just two walks, struck out 16 Hillclimbers, and needed only 104 pitches to finish the job.
Lantz was outstanding for much of the afternoon before running into trouble in the seventh. He pitched 6.1 innings, allowing five runs, four earned, on four hits. He walked four, hit four batters, threw three wild pitches, and struck out six. He threw a whopping 122 pitches.
Offensively, Urbana managed just one hit, but it was a big one. Grady Lantz accounted for the lone Hillclimber hit with his sixth-inning home run and drove in one run. Roberts scored the other Urbana run, while Tate Lantz and Jackson Stacy each drew walks.
Despite the disappointing finish, Urbana closes the season with an outstanding 23-7 record and a district runner-up finish. The Hillclimbers spent much of the spring proving they belonged among the area’s top teams and came within three outs of bringing home a district championship before Fenwick’s late rally brought the season to a close.
