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Big Red hoping to earn spot in state tourney

ZANESVILLE — Steubenville will look to become the second team from Jefferson County to punch its ticket to the 90th annual state baseball tournament.

Big Red (27-4) will meet The Plains Athens (24-3) today at 5 p.m. inside Gant Municipal Stadium in the Division II, Region 7 championship game. The contest was rained out Saturday. The winner moves on to the state tournament Thursday against the winner of Region 8 (Mason) between Dayton Chaminade-Julienne (21-4) and Columbus St. Francis DeSales (18-11). Thursday’s game time is set for 4 p.m. at Huntington Park in downtown Columbus.

Top-ranked Toronto (26-3) already secured its spot in the Division IV Final Four when the Red Knights easily dispatched Waterford, 11-1, in 5 innings Friday in the Region 15 finals on Beavers Field in Lancaster. It’s the first trip to Columbus in 19 years and they will face the winner of No. 8 Minster (22-7) and No. 13 Leipsic (24-3) on Friday at 10 a.m.

Steubenville, the highest ranked team remaining in the D-II field at No. 7, advanced to the regional finals with a 7-1 victory over Indian Valley Friday at Gant Municipal Stadium.

Nicky Zorne went five-plus innings in earning his ninth win in as many decisions. He struck out seven, but walked six while scattering half-a-dozen hits. The lone run he surrendered came when he hit a batter with the bases loaded.

Ryan Neely worked out of a jam bases-loaded situation with one out in the sixth before breezing through the seventh.

As pleased as veteran head coach Fred Heatherington was with the win, he was as displeased with the effort his team put forth at times.

“If we’re planning on getting back to Columbus and the state tournament, we had better play a lot better than we did today,” he said. “We didn’t play real well, but we won. Maybe a nine day layoff had something to do with it, I don’t know.”

Steubenville stranded 10 runners in the game, including the bases loaded in the second and third frames when it could have blown the game wide open.

“We had some timely hits, but not enough of them,” Heatherington noted. “We’ve got to hit the ball better.”

Big Red led 1-0 after one inning when Johnny Agresta was hit by a pitch with the bases juiced.

They made it 3-0 on Alec Taylor’s two-run single in the second. After the Braves finally dented their side of the scoreboard in the top of the third, Big Red made it 6-1 when Gino Pierro was issued a free pass with the bases full. Two more runs crossed on a throwing error.

Carlo Biasi’s groundout drove in the final run in the fourth.

The Plains Athens needed a hit batter with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th to squeak past Marietta at Bob Wren Stadium on the Ohio University campus.

It marked the second straight season the Bulldogs have defeated the Tigers. They did so, 1-0, in 2016.

The nine runs were the most surrendered by Marietta this season.

Athens has defeated Gallia Academy (9-4), Logan Elm (9-3), Warren Local (6-1) and the aforementioned Marietta en route to the regional finals.

Big Red owns postseason victories over East Liverpool (10-0), Beaver Local (11-1) and Cambridge (12-2), as well as Indian Valley.

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