The Unioto Shermans overcame a Zane Trace 6-run inning with two separate four-run innings and another three-run inning- en route to a 14-7 victory, Monday night. With it, comes an undisputed SVC Baseball Championship.
Zane Trace entered the game ranked 5th in the newest D-2 state coaches poll while Unioto is 6th, even though the Shermans led ZT by one game in the SVC standings.
Unioto got out to an early 1-0 lead with a run in the bottom of the first inning, only to see Zane Trace tie the game with a run in the top of the third.
The Shermans took what looked to be a comfortable 5-1 advantage, with four runs in the bottom of the third inning. That didn't last long though, as Zane Trace countered with a six-run fourth inning to grab a 7-5 lead.
Unioto would not be denied on this night, as they came back with four more runs in the bottom of the fourth and added three more runs in the fifth and a single run in the sixth for an insurmountable 14-7 lead, which held-up as the final score.
Harley Patterson came on in relief of Shermans' starter J.D. Blevins in the fifth inning, trailing 7-5. Patterson would hold the Pioneers in-check the rest of the game, yielding only one base hit the rest of the game. For his efforts, Patterson gains the pitching victory, while Zane Trace's Chad Ison. Josh Lambert inherited runners left on base when Ison exited, which is why Ison suffers the loss.
Unioto had 14 runs on 12 hits and committed 2 errors, while Zane Trace had 7 runs on 8 hits and 3 errors.
J.D. Blevins and Carson Debord were the hitting stars for the Tanks, with both collecting three hits. Debord knocked-in four RBI's as he had two doubles in his 3/4 performance at the plate. Ryan Burns reached base four times in only two official plate appearances, scoring three runs. He reached on an error, was hit by a pitch, walked sacrificed and singled.
Unioto runs their record to (12-1/18-3) while Zane Trace falls to (10-3/17-4).
For other area high school finals, go to this link for our Accurate Heating and Cooling Scoreboard: CLICK HERE...
Shermans' Coach Tony Taylor talks about a championship season on our podcast link below...