New Philadelphia baseball wins sectional title with mercy-rule win over East Liverpool

NEW PHILADELPHIA — New Philadelphia, which is a defending Division II district baseball champion, is headed back to district play after registering an impressive 10-0 six-inning shutout of East Liverpool in a sectional title game Tuesday evening at Tuscora Park.

“Back in the district and it feels good,” New Philadelphia coach Tyler Weisel said. “But we can’t be satisfied, we’ve got to keep pushing. We’ll have a couple good days of practice and go at it again next Monday.”

The win vaults the fifth-seeded Quakers (14-6) into a district semifinal matchup Monday against third-seeded Steubenville (18-5) at 5 p.m. at a site to be announced. The Big Red advanced Tuesday with a 3-0 sectional championship win over the 13th-seeded Philo Electrics.

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The Quakers played one of the best overall games of the season against East Liverpool.

New Philadelphia right-hander Owen Courtney twirled a five-hitter while striking out six and walking just two in 5⅓ innings of work.

“Man, he was electric,” Weisel said of Courtney’s performance. “He was everything we needed today — he was at strike one a whole lot today and he competed well with the off-speed stuff. He went at hitters and attacked them and our defense (no errors) also played well.”

Courtney had East Liverpool’s offense guessing much of the game as he mixed his fastball with some effective off-speed pitches.

The sophomore knew he was in a groove early on.

“Definitely in the first inning,” he said.

And what was Courtney’s best pitch against the Potters?

“Probably my slider, I could throw it whenever,” he said.

New Philadelphia left-hander Sam Rufenacht entered the game with one out in the sixth and recorded two strikeouts and a walk.

Offensively, the Quakers banged out 11 hits and scored in every inning. New Philadelphia went out to a 2-0 lead after the first frame, added solo runs in the second and third innings, four more in a big fourth and single tallies in the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings, with the later run ending the game by the mercy rule.

East Liverpool coach Brian May was impressed with the Quakers.

“When you travel down here you know they (the Quakers) are going to be good,” May said. “We played (rival Beaver Local) yesterday, and no excuses, we used a lot of pitching up just to try to make it here today. We did and we made it here.”

The Quakers had a number of offensive stars. New Philadelphia’s leaders included Noah Bollon (an RBI double and two singles), Owen Courtney (two-RBI double and a single), Braylon McBride (single and an RBI on a sacrifice fly), Carson Long (double and an RBI single), Mac Steele (two singles and an RBI), Caleb Crowthers (RBI single), Mason Caterina (RBI single) and Keaton Fausel (two RBIs).

“(We scored) in every inning and that’s always a goal,” Weisel said. “We had three or four guys with multiple hits and that’s what it’s going to take to make a run. Our seniors are carrying us right now.”

The Quakers jumped out to a 2-0 lead after one inning with the key hits coming when Bollon ripped an RBI double to right and Keaton Fausel added an RBI on a ground out.

The Quakers padded their advantage to 3-0 in the second on an RBI bunt single by Mac Steele. The score ballooned to 8-0 in a four-run fourth inning for the hosts, with the big blows being a two-RBI double to left by Courtney, an RBI single to right off the bat of Crowthers and an RBI sacrifice fly to right by Caterina.

The Quakers made it 9-0 in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI sacrifice fly by McBride. New Philadelphia then closed out the 10-run mercy rule win when Bollon singled to center to open the bottom of the sixth, moved up to third and raced home with the 10th run on an RBI single to center by Carson Long.

Leading East Liverpool’s five-hit performance was Elijah Suznevich with two singles, while adding solo safeties were Evan Tice, Nate Birch and Trent Davis. East Liverpool bowed out of the season with an 11-13 record.

Turning to next Monday’s district semifinal showdown with Steubenville, Weisel said the Quakers know the Big Red well, although their scheduled regular-season meetings with Steubenville got washed out this spring.

“It kept getting canceled, it got rained out both times,” Weisel said. “But two years ago, we played them in the regional semis and every year I’ve been here we’ve played them twice.”

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: New Philadelphia baseball dominates East Liverpool in sectional title