Dylan Hefflinger
PBR Senior Writer and Northwest scout

COLUMBUS – Camron Parsley scored on a wild pitch with two away in the bottom of the seventh to give Wheelersburg its second consecutive Division III state championship with a 5-4 win over Bloom-Carroll on Saturday.

Trailing 4-3, Ben Arnold reached on a one-out infield single for the Pirates and Parsley followed with a slow chopper to third. Arnold then beat the attempted force at second before junior catcher Dylan Miller tied the game with an RBI single to left with both runners moving up a base on the throw home.

Derek Moore was intentionally walked to fill the bases with one down. After a strikeout, Cory Stanley got ahead of Zach Brown 0-2. But the third to the plate was high and off the glove of Bloom-Carroll talented catcher Jarrett Peters allowing Arnold to come home with the winning run.

“All of a sudden, we came in there in the bottom of the seventh and you get a bunch of seniors running up to the plate at that point that are going to have their last high school at-bat,” Wheelersburg head coach Michael Estep said. “They were just willing to refuse to lose.”

“It’s tough when you are two outs away,” Bloom-Carroll head coach Brian Thacker said. “It’s heartbreaking for the kids. I know the kids will remember the last inning, but there’s more to it than that. We had some opportunities in the middle innings and didn’t take advantage.”

Wheelersburg jumped in front early with two in the first on singles by Garrett Carmichael and Wade Martin, a sacrifice, an RBI grounder by Parsley and a Miller base hit.

But Bloom-Carroll pulled within 2-1 with a run the third on a Scott Baker single and a Roger Danison double, then took the lead with three in the fourth. Zack Jude opened with a double and scored on a Blake Smith single. Three Wheelersburg and a Baker run-scoring single followed.

The Burg made it 4-3 with one in the bottom of the fourth on a bloop single by Moore and two-out RBI double from Sam Robinson.

Moore (14-0), an unsigned senior came on in relief for the Pirates in the top of the seventh and got out of a two-on, one-out jam with a strikeout and ground out to pick up the win. The win improved his high school pitching record to an unreal 36-0 and claims the longest winning streak in OHSAA history, supplanting the previous mark of 32-straight wins by West Salem Northwestern’s Dean Chance from 1958-1959.

The Pirates outscored its opponents 32-8 in the tournament.

LINESCORE

Bloom-Carroll  013 000 0  -  4 9 0

Wheelersburg  200 100 2  -  5  9 5

Records: Wheelersburg 29-4, Bloom-Carroll 26-6.

Winning pitcher: Derek Moore (1 inning, 0 runs, 0 hits, 1 strikeout, 0 walks). Others: Wade Martin (6 innings, 4 runs, 9 hits, 3 strikeouts, 0 walks). 

Losing pitcher: Corey Stanley (0.2 innings, 2 runs, 2 hits, 1 strikeout, 1 walk. Others: Jake Newton, Steven Baker, Scott Baker.

Leading hitters: (Bloom-Carroll, 9 hits) - Blake Smith 2 singles; Scott Baker 2 singles; Roger Danison single, double; Zack Jude double. (Wheelersburg, 9 hits) - Garrett Carmichael 2 singles; Dylan Miller 2 singles; Sam Robinson double.