Ohio high school baseball: Akron-area teams Walsh, CVCA win OHSAA regional semifinal games

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June 4 Baseball results: Walsh and CVCA advance to OHSAA regional finals; Stow, Green, Hudson, STVM bow out of tournament​

• WALSH JESUIT 2, STOW 1: Senior catcher Andrew Holcomb lived out a childhood dream Wednesday when he hit a solo walk-off home run to guide Walsh to a 2-1 win in a Division 2, Region 5 semifinal on Gilmour Academy's Figgie Field in Sharnsky Stadium. "I was sitting on the first pitch," Holcomb said. "I knew I wanted to hit that first one. I saw a slider right down the middle and I just put a good swing on it. The ball carried and it went over the fence." Holcomb said as he rounded first base he thought "That ball went over the fence and I just won the game. I was so excited. ... It was really exhilarating."
• Walsh (19-8) advanced to meet Lakewood in a regional final at 5 p.m. Thursday at Gilmour. Lakewood topped North Canton Hoover 3-1 in Wednesday's other game in Gates Mills.

• Holcomb's homer was his third during his teenage years of playing high school and summer travel ball. This was his first-walk homer. "It was hype. That was something that we really needed," Walsh junior shortstop Matthew Mansbery said of Holcomb's home run. "... I think the vibe is really high right now with our team. Guys are coming in and they are excited to work and they are excited to come in and do their jobs. We are confident, but we are not arrogant. We understand our abilities well and we try to play to those strengths."

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• Walsh head coach Joe Bowers was coaching third base when Holcomb hit the home run. "I was running down the third base line and I saw the left fielder turn and I thought 'that might have a chance,'" Bowers said. "When it went out, I went a little crazy down there. I think everybody did. I had no idea. I would have never guessed that in million years, but it just kept going and worked out for us. ... Andrew has had a rough season at the plate. Just to see him get that weight off his shoulder and make a good swing on a good pitch and see it go out, I think is a big deal. He is the best kind of kid. He works hard and is the nicest kid. He deserves to have a moment like that and I am really glad that he got that."

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• Mansbery contributed a double in the first inning and a single in the fourth inning. Mansbery scored after his single, a single by Carlos Smith and an error by Stow. "We are a gritty group that compete every game," Bowers said. "All of our games have been one- or two-runs, so we are kind of used to that tight game. It seems like they kind of like to be in that tight game. I am not really a huge fan of it, but they do. We just have got a bunch of gritty guys that come together and want the best for each other and the best for the team. They expect to come out of those on top, which I think is a big deal."

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• Stow (13-16) made its first regional semifinal appearance since 2016 and scored a run in the third with two outs. Junior Jake Harrington and sophomore Colin Callahan each walked and sophomore Caden Boyd followed with a single to score Harrington. Boyd added a double in the sixth. Stow junior starter Josh Moore pitched 4⅔ innings and allowed one run, five hits, a hit batter and no walks with four strikeouts. Bulldogs senior reliever Ben Bee allowed a run and two hits in 1⅓ innings. "I am super proud of how our kids came and competed today," Stow coach Aaron DeBord said. "We had our chances to get the big hit and Walsh made a few nice plays. We came in to today and we were not afraid of these guys. I think we gave them all they could handle. I am proud of our guys. ... Our guys came in confident. They were exicted to be here. They wanted to prove we belonged here and I think they competed and showed they they did belong here."

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• Walsh junior starter Shawn Sullivan pitched five innings and allowed one run, two hits and two walks with five strikeouts. Warriors senior reliever Josh Pierson earned the win after allowing four hits over two scoreless innings with two strikeouts and a walk. "Our pitchers have held teams to less than three runs the whole year," Mansbery said. "They have really kept us in every game and they let us hitters do our job."
• Said Bowers: "Shawn is a different level pitcher that we are lucky to have with us, and then to have Josh come in and kind of grind through two innings and get a bases loaded strikeout to end the [top of the seventh] inning -- those guys have been working all year at those things. They work everyday all year long to hone their craft."

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• Wednesday's game also allowed DeBord and Bowers to meet on the diamond. "We are rivals with Walsh, but I am friends with coach Bowers," DeBord said. "He was on our coaching staff when I first came to Stow [in 2015] and was with me at Firestone [in 2014]. He is a guy who I have a tremendous amount of respect for, so it was fun getting to compete against him." Bowers said he "learned a lot" from DeBord duing his time as an assistant at Firestone and Stow, and from coaching high school age players during four summers with the Ohio Longhorns, an organization that DeBord runs. "Aaron does a great job at Stow," Bowers said. "He coaches those boys the right way. I was not looking forward to playing that group because of the way he coaches them and the way he has them ready to play. Just to go out there and compete against a mentor of mine who is now kind of an equal is really cool. It was really exciting for me and it was a big deal."

• CVCA 4, WOOSTER 3 (8 innings): CVCA (22-8) scored three runs in the fifth inning and one run in the eighth inning to top Wooster (25-6) in a Division III, Region 9 semifinal in the Ballpark at Hudson. Senior Thad Eaton worked a bases loaded walk to score senior Ryan Wiehe in the top of the eighth and the Royals advanced to a regional final for the first time in program history. CVCA will meet University School at 5 p.m. Thursday at Hudson.

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• "There is a lot of togetherness with the team," Wiehe said. "We have come a long way throughout the season. We have grown together as a group, focusing on our journey in Christ. We have been finding ways to win games. We have had a lot of close games and we just come together, string together hits, encourage each other and we are brothers at the end of the day. ... It feels great to extend the season. We got just this far last year and it feels awesome to accomplish something that our school has never done in baseball. We are super happy and super proud of our team."

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• Wiehe led off the inning and reached via an error, advanced to second base when senior John Harabedian singled and took third when junior Connor McGough grounded out. Sophomore Zac Anderson popped out and then sophomore Alex Mammone walked to load the bases with two outs. "It was great to see our players battle," CVCA coach Jason Herblet said. " We went down 2-0. Their pitcher [senior Brady Bowen] was dealing today. He is a really good pitcher. He is going to the University of Akron next year. We continued to battle with good at bats and he went out in the seventh with over 100 pitches. The fight and the battle in our kids was impressive. They didn't give up."
• The Royals scored their three runs in the fifth with two outs to erase the 2-0 deficit. Mammone singled and Eaton and freshman John Baker walked to load the bases. Sophomore Jonah Gaudio delivered a two-run single that scored Mammone and Eaton. Junior Jacob Lancy doubled in Baker to make it 3-2. "We told our guys to be super disciplined, especially as their pitcher's pitch count started to get up there in the latter innings," Herblet said. "Obviously, we needed base runners and we were able to get back to the top of our lineup. We knew those guys would come through for us."

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• Wiehe and Harabedian both hit two singles. "We all agree that we owe it all to Jesus," Harabedian said. "Without him, we can't do anything, so he has given us all individual talents and gifts that allow us to compete at a high level. We saw that today. We were down early, but we didn't give up. We crawled back. We responded in a big way with a three-run fifth inning and then obviously I kind of gave that back, but it is OK. We won in the end. Our coach said it best, 'We always fight. We always compete and we are never out of a game.' That shows the heart of this group and how much we want to win. ... We have a group of players in varying grade levels and to have talent up and down those grade levels is awesome. We have versatility and guys that are coachable and want to get better."

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• Harabedian pitched six innings and allowed three runs (two earned), six hits, two walks and struck out eight. Mammone earned the win after pitching two scoreless innings, allowing one hit and recording one strikeout. "John has been the cornerstone of our pitching staff," Herblet said. "He has been leading throughout the entire year. When he is on the mound, we know we have got a good chance to win. It doesn't matter who we are playing. He was dealing and he started to get a little bit tired at the end of the sixth. We decided to go to Alex. He has been a great reliever for us and he has started some games for us. He came in and gave us two great innings." Wiehe, CVCA's catcher, praised Harabedian and Mammone for being "super poised, super calm and collected."

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• Wooster featured three University of Akron recruits: seniors Bowen, Ben Winge and Sam Nielsen. Winge hit a home run and a triple, scored two runs and had an RBI. Sophomore Aidan McMillan contributed two singles and a run. Bowen hit an RBI double, and allowed three earned runs, seven hits and two walks with five strikeouts 6⅓ innings on the mound. "The first at bat of the game [by Winge] was a home run off of John," Wiehe said. "I went out and talked to him and I told him that 'It happens.' He came back and dealt and went six innings after that. He really showed a lot of fight in a tough situation with a lot of noise. John and Alex showed a lot of fight and showed a lot of discipline with a lot of different hard situations."

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• OREGON CLAY 2, HUDSON 1; AMHERST STEELE 6, GREEN 3: The Explorers (22-7) were one strike away from winning a Division II, Region 6 semifinal against the Eagles (19-9) but Brayden Toneff tripled to right to score Darin Fussell in the bottom of the seventh. Alex Goetz singled to center one batter later to score Jake Titgemeyer and Clay advanced to a regional final at 5 p.m. Thursday against Amherst. The game will be played at Dill Field in Oberlin. Fussell started the rally with a double with one out.
• Alex Travis’ sacrifice fly scored Ryan Jones in the third innng for Hudson’s only run. Jones and Dennison each singled in the third. Hudson ace Luke Mager allowed two hits and two earned runs in 6⅔ innings. He walked two and struck out seven. Clay's Landon Eversman struck out five and limited Hudson to one earned run, three hits and one walk.

• In the other semifinal, a seventh-inning rally by Green (15-15) fell short to the Comets (27-2), who scored two runs in the first, fifth and sixth. Cael Charles was the big bat for Amherst with two singles, three RBIs and a run and Landon Wolf added a two-run double. Amherst's Harrison Schneider earned the win by pitching six innings and allowing seven hits, two walks and one earned run. Green's Griff Carmichael hit two singles and a double and scored a run. Dominic Salomone added a single, double and RBI. Landon Langford hit two singles and Nathan Elliott contributed a hit, RBI and run. Green's Jacob Harrelson pitched five innings and allowed five earned runs on six hits with nine strikeouts and four walks.
• WAPAKONETA 8, ST. VINCENT-ST. MARY 4: The Irish (20-9) took a three-run lead into the the fifth, but Wapakoneta (21-5) pushed across four runs in the bottom half of the inning and scored three runs in the sixth to knock STVM out in a Division III, Region 10 semifinal at Avon's Lake Erie Crushers Stadium. Matt Large and Quinn Yori logged RBIs for the Irish. J.J. Pytash (two runs) and Rylan Hurley each hit doubles. Large went five innings of three-hit ball. He allowed five runs, three earned, walked five and struck out 10. STVM's Tyler Slone struck out two in the sixth inning after Will Tober allowed three earned runs. Wapakoneta starter Grant Jolly pitched a complete game with seven strikeouts and six walks. He allowed five hits and two earned runs, and also hit a double, walked and scored two runs. Drew Bailey hit a two-run triple in the sixth. Wapakoneta will play Toledo St. Francis de Sales (21-10) in a regional final at 5 p.m. Thursday in Avon.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: OHSAA baseball regional semifinals for Akron-area teams | June 4, 2025

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