Carson Francis, Staff Writer
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
ATHENS — Brayden Barnard stole the spotlight on Thursday afternoon.
South Webster was deadlocked in a scoreless Division VII regional final with Strasburg-Franklin, where offense came at a premium for nearly 12 full innings.
But it was the bottom of the 12th where the sophomore became a superhero.
With two runners on and two away, Barnard lined a single into left field to bring home the winning run, sending the Jeeps (21-10) to their first-ever state tournament with a 1-0 victory.
“To be a part of that team last year, getting knocked out in the regional final, you’re kind of coming in here with a chip on your shoulder,” Barnard said. “Finally executing and being able to punch that ticket to the Final 4, it’s unreal to be a part of that.”
CREDIT: Raymond Gleadle/SOSA
Also putting forth a Herculean effort in the win was freshman Easton Large, who pitched the first 11 innings before reaching the maximum pitch count with one out in the top of the 12th.
He allowed just five hits and struck out 11 batters.
“Easton has been everything we could ask for and more this year. He just goes out there and battles,” SW head coach Ryan McClintic said. “Before that 12th inning, he said, ‘Coach, I got you, don’t take me out.’ He knew he didn’t have that many pitches left, and he still went out and attacked hitters.”
Neither team could buy a run, but that’s not to say they didn’t have several chances throughout the afternoon.
Though South Webster put runners in scoring position with less than two outs in the second and third innings, the Jeeps were unable to do anything afterward, leaving things scoreless.
But still, Large did everything he could to give his team a chance.
In the top of the fifth, the Tigers had a golden opportunity when Tanner Tucker doubled with one out before stealing third. With the go-ahead run just 90 feet away, however, Large fanned the next two batters to retire the side.
From there, the freshman kept SF silent in the sixth and seventh innings to keep things at 0-0 going into extra innings.
Strasburg (22-8) would threaten with a leadoff single by Brody Baughman in the ninth, but the Jeeps wiped him away by turning a 5-4-3 double play before retiring the next batter for the third out. Then, the Tigers put a runner in scoring position with one out before Large struck out the side in the 10th.
The rookie retired Strasburg in order in the 11th before surrendering a leadoff single in the top of the 12th. He then sat down his next batter as he reached the maximum pitch count, closing the book on an absolute pitching clinic.
SW turned the ball over to senior Jacob McGraw, who allowed a single to Avery Keffer before striking out the next batter and picking off Keffer at first to end the top half of the frame.
“Jacob was really the guy we rode early in the year as a senior, and defensively, he gives us our best lineup in the field with him out in right,” McClintic said. “But he’s built for this moment, he’s worked his tail off in the offseason to come in and be confident, keep a zero on the scoreboard and give us another chance.”
That set up the Jeeps to work some late-game magic with their bats.
With two outs, Cole Bennett and Sam Murphy came up with back-to-back singles. Then, Barnard etched his name into South Webster lore forever by lifting one over the shortstop’s head and into left field, allowing Bennett to score from second and send the Jeeps to Canton.
“We used all 27 regular season games on our schedule to go out and compete and prepare for moments like this. I couldn’t be happier for the kids and coaches and the community,” McClintic said. “We built this thing with kids who are all from South Webster and played in our youth league, and we’ve got coaches who have devoted time to our youth league and in high school for many years. These are a bunch of homegrown South Webster boys and it makes things even sweeter.”
Barnard, Bennett and Murphy all finished 2-for-5 on the day. Barnard and Murphy each doubled while Bennett singled twice and scored the game-winning run.
“Those guys have done it all year long. This is a dangerous lineup, one through nine,” McClintic said. “We’ve started more rallies in the back of our lineup, and those guys are extremely confident. You could mix our guys up and put them anywhere in the lineup, and we’d have production all over the place.”
South Webster advances to the Division VII state semifinal on June 12, which will be played at Thurman Munson Memorial Stadium in Canton at 1 p.m.
The Jeeps will face off with Leipsic, a 6-5 winner over Montpelier.
“These guys have been building toward this their entire lives. A lot of them are three-sport athletes and have had a lot of success across the board, but baseball was always the sport I felt like they were the most talented in,” McClintic said. “We’re not done yet, this was not our end goal. Winning the state championship is our goal, so whoever is standing in front of us next, we’re going to prepare and go give them our best shot.”
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