Carson Francis, Staff Writer
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
AKRON — Fairfield Union was in the midst of a historic run this spring.
After an outright MSL-title, the Falcons grinded their way to a district title and the program’s first regional crown in 40 years.
But when they arrived at the state tournament, they simply bet a buzzsaw in what was Bishop Fenwick.
Fenwick made quick work of Fairfield Union and took advantage of several early errors. Building a nearly insurmountable early lead, Fenwick put away Fairfield Union with a 7-2 win to advance to the Division IV state title game.
CREDIT: Brock Netter/SOSA
“The nerves were there, weren’t they? You come to the Final 4, you’re playing a team like Bishop Fenwick and their leadoff hitter is a Team USA player,” Fairfield Union head coach Scott Burke said. “We were trying to do things perfect. Nothing goes well when you’re trying to be perfect.”
Carter Shouse led off the game by drawing a walk before advancing to second via interference. Hudson Kreke then laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Shouse to third before a Fairfield Union error scored Shouse for the game’s first run.
And the waterfall started there.
After a leadoff single in the second, Ty Miller ripped a triple down the right-field line to plate another run. Nick Bachmann then singled to drive him in from there, extending Fenwick’s lead to 3-0.
Things only got worse for FU.
Bachmann later scored from third on a balk before Fairfield Union made another error during a rundown between third and home, bringing in two more Fenwick runs to make it a 6-0 deficit.
“[Fenwick] hit the ball well, but it wasn’t their bats that really put it to us. We couldn’t handle their offensive pressure,” Burke said. “Even with what we did, limiting them to what we did was pretty good. We only held them to one run after that.”
That sequence would all but put it away.
Fenwick added insult to injury in the top of the sixth when Ryder Francis scored from third on a wild pitch to extend his team’s lead to 7-0.
But even when things seemed out of reach, Fairfield Union never quit until the final out.
That was all the more evident in the bottom of the sixth, when FU put two runners on with two outs for Garrett Dilcher. There, the senior lofted one down the line in left, where it dropped in fair ground to plate both runners for a two-run triple.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less from these guys. A motto for us is ‘Stay in the fight,’ and we did that,” Burke said. “Give their pitcher a lot of credit, he was pumping it up out there. But we stayed in the fight and I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
But FU’s effort to climb back into things was too little, too late.
Fenwick pitcher Anthony Snyder closed the book on his dominant day from the mound by putting together a 1-2-3 seventh, sending his team to the state championship while putting Fairfield Union’s season to an end.
“We got some guys that are really down, but there’s people in our community that haven’t done this in 40 years. You see the turnout that we had, they rallied around these kids. We have to look at the big picture and not just the day-to-day. A league championship, district championship and regional championship … those are all good things for our program.”
Dilcher was responsible for his team’s only two hits, coming up with a pair of triples and two runs driven in.
Bishop Fenwick would go on to lose to Sandusky Perkins by a 5-1 final in Sunday’s Division IV state championship game at 7 17 Credit Union Park in Akron.
Meanwhile, Fairfield Union finishes its season with an outright MSL-Buckeye title, as well as a district title and its first regional championship since 1986. The Falcons will bid farewell to five seniors — Dilcher, Braxton Rowles, Brady Andrews, Ashton Waldrop and Alex Burke.
“I’ve only been with them for three years, but they’re a special group to me because my son is in that group. They’ve all been over to our house, I know a lot about them and I know their families,” Burke said. “It was special for me to get to do that with them, especially my son, Alex. These guys have set a standard that hadn’t been there for a while and we want it to continue.”
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