Box Score COLUMBUS, Ohio – In an emotional day at Panther Valley, Ohio Dominican's baseball team held off Walsh 6-3 on Sunday to win the final game of a GLIAC series that stretched over three days.
Sunday's win marked not just the final regular season home game of the 2016 schedule, but also the final home game in the storied career of 29th year head coach Paul Page, who announced earlier this year that he was stepping down at the end of the season.
Prior to first pitch, the baseball team presented a check for $1,000 to Chayse Wolf and his family. The son of former Ohio Dominican baseball standout Travis Wolf, Chayse was paralyzed from the waist down in an accident last summer, and the Panthers spent the year fundraising to help alleviate the Wolf family's expenses.
For the action on the field, freshman Mitchell Bault (Cincinnati, Ohio) carried a heavy part of the load for ODU. Bault threw his first career complete game, tossing 78 of his 112 pitches for strikes, in limiting Walsh to just six hits over nine innings. He struck out three and walked just one batter.
The right hander retired the first nine hitters he faced as ODU built a quick 3-0 lead. In the second inning, freshman Gage Taylor (South Lebanon, Ohio) lined an RBI single to right field to score senior Colman Fitzgerald (Centerville, Ohio). Sophomore Max Banke (Oakwood, Ohio) followed with an RBI single to right field as well, and two batters later, sophomore Cody Paterniti (Chardon, Ohio) slapped an RBI double down the third base line to finish the scoring.
Walsh scored a run in the fifth inning, but the Panthers earned some breathing room in the seventh and eighth innings.
Senior Jacob Horsley (Thornville, Ohio) sent a sharp liner into right field that scored junior Kyle Burson (Brunswick, Ohio) and sophomore Justin Childers (Pickerington, Ohio) in that seventh inning.
In the eighth, Taylor reached on an error and later advanced to third. With two outs and a left handed pitcher on the mound, Taylor broke for home and slid in safely as the catcher couldn't handle the throw home cleanly.
The Cavaliers threatened in the ninth inning, as the first four batters reached safely to pull the visitors within 6-3. Bault induced a fielder's choice groundout to get the first out, then fanned the last two batters he faced to seal the win.
ODU finished with 12 hits in the game, as Paterniti, Fitzgerald, Horsley and Taylor each had two hits. Childers and senior Austin Greene (Dublin, Ohio) each reached base twice as well for the Panthers.
Ohio Dominican concludes its season with a four-game road trip to Saginaw Valley next Saturday and Sunday.
Contact: Scott Miles
miless@ohiodominican.edu
