Carson Francis, Staff Writer
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
KINNIKINNICK — Zane Trace’s trophy case, throughout the 2025-26 school year, has been looking a little empty.
The Pioneers fell just short of capturing an SVC championship in both football and basketball and, with a lot of those same student-athletes taking the diamond this spring, one last chance to bring home a league crown stood before ZT’s seniors.
And they left no doubt that they were the top dog in the SVC baseball ranks.
After dropping their first league contest, the Pioneers rounded off 11 straight league wins, including two against rival Unioto.
Already with a share of the crown to their names, ZT made sure there would be no shared title on Monday evening. Scoring eight consecutive runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, the Pioneers dropped Westfall by a 12-5 final to clinch their third SVC title in the past five seasons.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
“This is our first time in a while that we’ve won anything outright, in any sport really,” Zane Trace senior Gunnar McCullough said. “It feels pretty good. It’s pretty hard to get here. We had to battle for a couple games, but this feels nice.”
After a scoreless stalemate throughout the first two innings, the Pioneers (15-6, 12-1 SVC) caught fire offensively in the bottom of the third.
With two runners on, Lukas Oiler started a two-out rally for ZT, firing an RBI single into left-center to give his team an early 1-0 lead. Grady Stewart then drove in a pair of runs by reaching on a fielding error before Blayke Payne drove him home on a blooper into right field, capping off a four-run frame for the Pioneers.
“Whenever the top of our lineup isn’t working, I feel like the bottom of our lineup really picks us up,” Oiler said. “And once the bottom gets working, we all just start working as a unit and it’s pretty hard to stop us when we’re all hitting.”
But Westfall (9-8, 6-7 SVC) provided a counterpunch in the next half-inning.
The Mustangs returned the favor with their own two-out magic, starting with an RBI single from Austin Geer to put them on the board.
Brendan Biegler and Rick Hanley would single to drive in another pair of runs, cutting the deficit to 4-3. Then, Cash Conrad beat out a throw to first on a ground ball before a throwing error to third sent home the tying run, knotting things up at 4-4.
However, the Pioneers showed no signs of panic.
ZT’s bats were still red-hot, and that still carried over to the home half of the fourth. With the go-ahead run just 90 feet away, Noah Kysor lifted a fly ball deep enough into left field to score the lead runner, putting the Pioneers back in front at 5-4.
Zane Trace picked up an insurance run after Mason Hartley came around to score on a Gunnar McCullough single, giving the Pioneers a two-run advantage to take into the fifth inning.
“When we got to the third and fourth innings, I’d say our whole lineup was hitting. Here recently, we’ve been hitting pretty well,” Stewart said. “Like [Oiler] said, we’re hard to stop once we all hit.”
Kysor took the mound in relief of McCullough and delivered two shutout innings, which allowed the Pioneers to add even more with their bats.
“I started off pretty good, no runs the first couple innings, but then they started hitting me pretty well into the gaps. Noah came in and did a great job,” McCullough said. “He’s got a couple saves this year and he’s thrown really well. He’s saved us a couple times throughout the year, and he’s done a very good job of coming in after me or Pierce [Manson] or whoever’s pitched.”
In the bottom of the sixth, Zane Trace continued to cushion its lead.
Quinton Allen led off the inning with a single before stealing second, leading to Jake Stauffer driving him home with an out. Later, McCullough stood at the plate with the bases loaded, where he proceeded to fire a double into center, driving home another two runs. Oiler, Stewart and Payne would each drive in runs on consecutive at-bats to follow, putting an exclamation point on a six-run inning to build ZT’s lead to 12-4.
Westfall got a run back off of Kysor in the form of an RBI sacrifice fly from Caleb Lowe, but it was all in vain as Kysor slammed the door on the Mustangs in the seventh, finishing off a three-inning save, and more importantly, an outright SVC title-clinching victory for Zane Trace.
Statistically, McCullough was 2-for-3 with a double, a run and three RBIs while Payne went 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Oiler was 1-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs, Hartley finished 1-for-4 with three runs, and Stauffer enjoyed a 2-for-2 with two runs and an RBI.
For the Mustangs, Hanley was 3-for-4 with a double, a run and an RBI, Conrad went 2-for-4 with a double and a run, and Geer finished 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI.
Zane Trace will return to action on Tuesday evening at Circleville before finishing their SVC slate, hosting Piketon on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Westfall looks to bounce back at home against Fairfield Union on Tuesday before welcoming Adena on Wednesday in a league finale.
“I think we take this momentum after winning the league title, just take it and run with it into the tournament,” Oiler said. “I think we’ve got a great opportunity to do something special and go deep.”
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