West Branch overcomes deficit, advances to baseball state title game
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AKRON -- All season, Beau Alazaus had shut down opposing offenses and helped lift his team to victory even when its bats went cold. But on Friday, in the biggest game of Alazaus's career, he needed his teammates to lift him up.
Alazaus, who entered the Division II state semifinal game against Wintersville Indian Creek tied for the most wins in West Branch single-season history, did not bring his best stuff to the Canal Park mound in Akron. Despite consistently strong contact made by Indian Creek's batters, the Warriors made key defensive plays and came up with a few clutch hits, which proved to be just enough to push the Warriors to a 4-2 victory and their first state title game appearance in 51 years.
"We owed it to Beau," West Branch head baseball coach Rick Mulinix said. "We owed it to Beau to have his back defensively and to score some runs. That kid's shouldered so much of the weight on him when he goes out on the mound in big games, and it was great to see us step up defensively and offensively and get him that win in the state semifinals."
It became clear fairly early on that Alazaus, who blanked Ursuline in a four-hit complete game shutout in the regional semifinal, was struggling. Shawn Alazaus, a West Branch assistant coach and Beau's father, said Beau uncharacteristically failed to command his fastball Friday, which he said could have been due to nerves.
While Beau admitted he was nervous before the game, it did not stop him from creating an early lead for the Warriors at the plate. West Branch jumped out ahead in the top of the first inning after Beau hit a triple down the right-field line to score Hunter Shields, who had singled moments earlier.
After leaving runners on base to end two scoreless innings, Indian Creek finally bested Alazaus and put some runs on the scoreboard. Much like Alazaus in the first inning, Ty Householder tripled down the right-field line to lead off the bottom of the third.
While Householder would eventually be thrown out by Alazaus in a heads-up fielding play, the Warriors' ace could not hold off Indian Creek any longer. After loading the bases with his second walk of the game, Sylus Hyde hit a two-run single to take a 2-1 lead.
West Branch had a chance to respond and potentially tie the game in the top of the fourth after Anthony Perry singled and eventually made his way to third base. However, the Warriors made the first of two nearly identical baserunning errors when Maddox Coleman was caught in a rundown between first and second base for the half-inning's final out.
Mulinix said one of the mistakes was a missed sign, while the other was a result of poor execution.
"It messes with you a little bit," Mulinix said, "because then you’re like, 'Oh crap, I don’t want to do something stupid now, because it looks like we’ve already done two things stupid.' And we did do two things stupid, but one of them, they executed something the right way. The second time wasn’t supposed to happen."
Fortunately, leaving a pair of runners stranded 90 feet away from home did not come back to bite West Branch on Friday. Instead, the Warriors, who trailed 2-1 entering the sixth inning, tied the game up on an RBI double from Perry and took the lead with a Charlie Biskup single to left field.
The West Branch defense, which dove, stretched and leaped to field hard-hit balls throughout the game, then came up big again. After Nick Maurer doubled to lead off the bottom of the sixth, Stan Amis came up to the plate with bunting on his mind. After fouling off the first pitch on an attempted bunt, Amis tried to bunt again. Unfortunately for him, he got under Alazaus's second pitch much like the first, allowing West Branch first baseman Aaron Tucker to dive under the ball for the first out. Tucker then turned and fired the ball to second base, catching Maurer between second and third for another out.
Tucker proved to be similarly impactful at the plate in the top of the seventh, as his bloop single fell onto the center-field grass and drove in a run despite a diving attempt by Householder.
With a two-run cushion, Alazaus, despite walking a batter and bringing the tying run to the plate, managed to close out the state semifinal victory as Gavin Pownall lined out.
"This is one of the best moments of my life," Alazaus said after the victory.
Shortstop Boston Mulinix said falling behind like the Warriors did Friday is something the team is used to overcoming.
"We can fight back from anybody," he said. "We’ve been down more than that throughout our schedule this year, which has been pretty tough, and that’s part of the reason why we’re prepared for games like this. But I'd take us against anybody any day."
West Branch will have the opportunity to one-up themselves and win the first state title in program history Sunday, when the Warriors take the field at Canal Park in Akron again for the Division II state championship game against Hamilton Badin, which has yet to surrender a single run in the playoffs.
The title game is set for a 10 a.m. start time on Sunday morning. Perry will start on the mound for West Branch.
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