WICKLIFFE—Crestwood snapped a seven-game skid and claimed its first postseason victory since 2019 when the Red Devils traveled to Wickliffe and beat the Blue Devils in a Division III sectional semifinal on Tuesday.
With the win, the Red Devils advanced to Wednesday’s sectional championship game at Akron Manchester.
“It feels great,” said Crestwood senior Jonas Honeycutt of the win. “We haven’t won a playoff game in quite some time.”
Wickliffe struck first in the bottom of the first when Nunzio Zivnoski drew a walk and scored on an error.
The Red Devils stranded two runners in the top of the second but broke through with a two-run third.
Josh Eyerman was hit by a pitch with one out and Bobby Bradley singled and stole second to leave runners at second and third with one down. Charlie Sommer then singled home two runs that gave Crestwood a 2-1 lead.
Honeycutt singled and scored on a groundout in the fourth that increased Crestwood’s lead to 3-1, but the Blue Devils responded with a run in the bottom half of the inning on Bobby Plumb’s triple and Liam Widemire’s sacrifice fly.
Crestwood closed out the scoring with a three-run fifth.
Elijah Jurisch drew a leadoff walk and Cameron Gross reached on an error. Jurisch scored on a wild pitch and Eyerman hit a two-out RBI single. Bradley and Sommer then hit back-to-back singles with Sommer knocking in the final run of the game.
Crestwood’s pitchers allowed just one base runner the rest of the game.
Sommer picked up the win after allowing one earned run on three hits with six strikeouts in six innings.
“I got told I was going to start yesterday and I came out here knowing that Wickliffe is a great hitting team,” Sommer said. “We had a rough season out in the field, but today they played great, backed me up, it was awesome.”
Steven Lincoln threw one scoreless and hitless inning. He struck out one.
“Coach told me coming in to stay composed, stay within myself, and that’s exactly what I did,” he said. “Of course, my team putting up some runs for me gave me some insurance runs and put a little bit of ease on my load. It felt great.”
Bradley and Sommer both finished the day 2-for-4 at the plate and Sommer knocked in a game-high four runs.
Honeycutt, Eyerman, Nolan Huntington, Landon Kuenzer, and Wyatt Januska each recorded one hit for the Red Devils.
“Being able to come out and win in this fashion, it was pretty sick to be able to get the job done and continue on to tomorrow,” Eyerman said.
Brandon Henderson had a pair of hits for Wickliffe.
(Video Interviews will be posted later in the day)
Tonight’s OHSAA Sectional-Final Baseball contest is against Akron Manchester!
📍- 760 West Nimisila Rd. 44319
⏲️- 5:00pm
🎟️- D3 – Parma Heights – Manchester v Crestwoodhttps://t.co/zm8MogHtFb— Crestwood Red Devils (@cwoodreddevils) May 17, 2023
