Graham’s Adam Levy delivers a pitch during the Falcons’ 4-1 win over Lynchburg-Clay. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
Graham Local is headed for the OHSAA Division V state baseball finals after overcoming a slew of adversities, including an overnight rain delay, to beat Lynchburg-Clay in the semifinals, 4-1, with Adam Levy leading the way on the mound and in the batters box.
Akron, OH — Adversity begins with ‘A’ and there are three ‘A’s’ in Graham Local.
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There should be more when it comes to the Graham Local baseball team and its pursuit of its first state baseball championship since 1973.
The Division V school from St. Paris had to stand as tall and as strong as the Eiffel Tower this weekend.
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And it paid off, a 4-1 semifinal victory over Lynchburg-Clay in a game that took two days to complete.
Their semifinal game was delayed Friday two hours by heavy, heavy, rain.
The game finally began at 9 p.m. and they played two innings before heavy, heavy, heavy rain hit Canal Park at 9:41.
They kept everybody in the stadium until midnight before postponing it until Saturday with Graham leading, 2-0.
So, taking it all in stride because they’ve done nothing but take big strides all season, the Falcons came back and finished what they started.
Asked about the nuisance of splitting the game into two days, Graham coach Spencer Mitchell said, “That’s nothing new to us. We’ve dealt with adversity all year. These kids are so great, nothing bothers them, they just deal with what is in front of them.”
Lynchburg’s Trevor Niehaus is called out after being tagged by Falcons third baseman Holden Dunham.
Hayden Van Hoose started the game Friday and pitched two innings, but couldn’t come back on Saturday.
So Mitchell turned to Adam Levy and it wasn’t a big turn. Levy pitched the regional final to get Graham here — a one-run, five-hit 5-1 victory over Ironton. He pitched the final five innings Saturday and ducked inning after inning uprisings like Muhammad Ali ducking a right cross.
He held Clay to one run, seven hits, walked three and struck out eight as Clay stranded eight base runners.
“I was a little tired toward the end, throwing a lot of pitches (90),” said Levy, who also did some heavy lifting with the bat —two hits and two RBI.
“I thought I wasn’t going to pitch, but this morning came around and we needed to make it to the next game so I said, ‘Whatever for the team.’ We’re just trying to get there.”
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And get there they did and face Waynedale Sunday evening for the Division V title.
While Mitchell said nobody expected Graham to be found anywhere near Akron, Levy said, “We knew we were good. We went through some stuff at the beginning of the year, it is what it is, but we knew we were good, knew we could do it.”
The Falcons qualified for the Final Four after a season that had more ups and downs than any of the 15 roller coasters at Kings Island.
Lynchburg-Clay’s Braedon West pops out to Graham’s pitcher Adam Levy.
They beat Bethel to open the season, then lost four of five. Then they won five straight and seven of eight.
Mitchell must have thought is team was on its way to big things. Then they went 4-5 leading up to the tournament and the Falcons were ranked a not-so-significant 13th in the state rankings.
“But this team has character and has talent and we knew we could make it, even though nobody else gave us a chance,” he said.
And while some schools only had to win four or five games to make the Final Four, Graham had to shove aside six oppoents. After a 3-2 close call with Enon Greenon in their first game, the Falcons won their next five by four, four, seven, seven and four runs to enable them to make reservations at the Courtyard by Marriott in nearby Stow.
If Graham Local’s players sneaked a peek at Lynchburg-Clay’s list of results, it might have given them a large dose of stage fright.
During one portion of their 23-3 record, the Mustangs run-ruled seven straight opponents by mostly staggering scores: 19-1, 23-0, 11-1, 14-0, 10-0, 10-0 and 28-0.
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Then if they checked Clay’s tournament results, the shudders probably disappeared because the Mustangs won each of their last three games by one run — 3-2 over Portsmouth, 4-3 over Lucasville Valley and 5-4 in nine innings over St. Clairsville.
Play was resumed with the game in the top of the third with two different pitchers on the mound than the two that started.
Clay’s Braedon West kept Graham silent for three innings while Clay made some noise.
Lynchburg-Clay’s Austin Bell is tagged out at 2nd base by Graham’s shortstop Owen Powell.
Graham’s Levy struck out the first two in the third then gave up a single, a stolen base and a single. He avoided damage when he struck out West.
Clay cut the lead in half in the fourth but ran themselves out of a chance for more.
Levy retired the first two then gave up three straight hits for a run. But with two outs and two on, Trevor Niehaus, a speedy guy with the green light, tried to steal third and Graham’s Zach Wheeland wiped him out, leaving Graham on top, 2-1.
Catcher Zach Wheeland holds on to a foul ball to record an out in the Falcons’ win over Lynchburg-Clay.
Graham quickly retrieved in the fifth after West struck out the first two. He hit Holden Dunham with a pitch, he stole second and he scored on Levy’s line single to center for a 3-1 lead.
Levy then trudged to the mound and once again worked through drama. With one out, Clay put two on. West popped to the pitcher and Wells popped one foul that hit catcher Wheeland on the body and ricocheted into his glove.
Graham put it away in the sixth with three straight singles that included a two-out run-scoring single by Owen Powell that pushed the Falcons on top, 4-1.
Levy did it again in the bottom of the sixth. He put two on, once again teasing the Clay before striking out Tanner Roberts for the third out.
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