West Side rallied from a four-run deficit before falling to New Albany 8-6 on Cole Mueller’s walk-off, three-run homer in the bottom of the sixth in the championship game of the Ohio Little League state tournament at Centennial Park.
“We fought back,” West Side manager Tim Nichting said. “We were right there. It’s just the luck of the game.”
West Side, which finished its postseason with a 7-2 record, barreled through the district tournament and its first two state opponents before matching up against New Albany in the winner’s bracket final on Wednesday.
Nolan Pettinger hit a walk-off home run in extra innings to knock West Side into the consolation bracket.
On Friday, Mueller smacked a grand slam in the first inning to give New Albany a 4-0 lead, forcing West Side to work out of an early hole.
West Side pieced together a four-run, fifth inning that tied the game up at 5-5 and later took the lead when Cole Vowell singled in Max Hall in the top of the sixth.
Hall, who gave up five runs and struck out eight in five innings of work on the mound for West Side, was relieved by Nolan Warner in the bottom of the sixth.
Hall walked the first batter of the inning before Warner stepped in to face Kevin Klingerman. Warner fanned Klingerman, and then Pettinger singled to put runners at first and second.
That’s when Mueller dropped the game winner over the left-center fence to send New Albany to the Great Lakes Regional tournament, which takes place Aug. 5-9 in Whitetown, Ind.
“I guess I am a little speechless,” Nichting said. “I really did think we were going to win that game.
“But you’ve got to give them credit,” Nichting said of New Albany. “Their first five hitters can swing it. There’s nothing else you can say. They hit the ball. They deserve it.”
West Side was led offensively by Warner (2 for 3, 2 runs, RBI), Hall (1 for 2, 2 runs), Konnor Commins (1 for 2, run), Cole Vowell (1 for 3, RBI), Finn Chenoweth (1 for 2, 2 RBI) and Brennan Beaudoin (1 for 3).
“Our guys really came together — great parents, great kids,” Nichting said. “Boy, they started buying into everything. If we could have gotten by this — and had another couple weeks — we had the depth in pitching to do something.”
West Side sent nine different pitchers from its roster of 12 to the mound during the postseason.
“I’ll still always say this — we needed all the extra hitting we could get,” Nichting said. “We needed to work on hitting. We had our chance in our big inning. We just had to score a couple more runs.”
The West Side Little League All-Star roster consisted of Cash Brown, Brennan Beaudoin, Timmy Saurber, Cole Helmes, Max Hall, Konnor Commins, Cole Vowell, Nolan Warner, Tycen Maus, Ethan Woods, Finn Chenoweth and Grayson Huff.
West Side was coached by manager Nichting and assistants Kenny Coomer and Chris Hilton.
“We battled, and that’s all you can ask for from a group of kids like this,” Nichting said. “Just like these kids walking off this field, I don’t like second place either.”
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