Lincolnview’s Landon Price, left, Carson Fox, center, and Cole Binkley receive their Division IV state runner-up trophy Saturday at Canal Park in Akron. Had to LimaScores.com for additional Lincolnview photos.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
AKRON — It all seemed to be lined up perfectly for Lincolnview until it wasn’t.
The Lancers were in the Division IV baseball state championship game for the second year in a row. Some of its players had talked about feeling comfortable in Canal Park, the site of this year’s and last year’s state tournament.
And they had Landon Price, who had never lost a game in his high school career, to pitch this year’s championship game.
But Lincolnview (24-7) finished its season as state runner-up for a second consecutive year when Russia beat the Lancers 10-4 on Saturday in a game that was closely contested until the Raiders put seven runs on the scoreboard in their last at bat in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Russia (25-6) was a team that flew under the radar when it came to rankings and awards. It was not ranked in the state poll and didn’t even have a player make honorable mention on the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association All-Ohio team.
Lincolnview was ranked No. 3 in the poll and Price was voted the Division IV Player of the Year on the All-Ohio team.
Russia got seven hits off Price in the first three innings and eight in the 5 2/3 innings he pitched before he reached the pitch count limit of 125 in the sixth inning.
“The key was we made their pitcher work a little harder and feel uncomfortable probably more than he was used to,” Russia coach Kevin Phlipot said.
“We made him throw pitches. He was up. We didn’t chase too many. We squared a few balls up and got more runners on than he was used to. We got a couple of runs early and when they scored we answered. Our guys are resilient. We stayed patient the whole time,” he said.
The day started out well for Lincolnview when it took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning on an RBI single by Brandon Renner, and might have had more runs early in the game if Russia infielders hadn’t made diving grabs on line drives off the bat of Cole Binkley in the first inning and Evan Miller in the second inning.
That 1-0 lead was the only time Lincolnview led. Russia got two runs in the bottom of the second inning to go up 2-1. Lincolnview tied it at 2-2 in the top of the third inning without a hit. Russia went up 3-2 in the bottom of that inning on singles by Hayden Quinter, Braylon Cordonnier and Aiden Shappie.
Russia broke the game open in the top of the sixth with seven runs, two of them charged to Price, who had to leave the game with two out and two runners on base when he reached 125 pitches.
By the end of that half inning, Russia was up 10-2. Lincolnview didn’t go quietly, putting two runs on the scoreboard in the top of the seventh, but an 8-run lead was too much to overcome.
Cole Binkley, Austin Bockrath and Price all had two hits for the Lancers. Price struck out 10 and walked two.
Xavier Phlipot (5 strikeouts, 1 walk, 8 hits) got a complete game win for Russia. Hayden Quinter and Aiden Shappie were 3 for 3. Cordonnier went 3 for 4 and Zane Shappie was 2 for 4.
It became obvious Lincolnview was going to have difficulty getting a complete game from Price when he threw 94 pitches by the end of the fourth inning.
“They had a plan of attack to kind of just chip away at things. They weren’t going to overpower Landon with his velocity. They had a good game plan and had success with it,” Lincolnview coach Eric Fishpaw said.
“We tip our cap to Russia. They made some phenomenal plays early in the game – the first baseman’s diving play, the shortstop’s diving play. I’m just proud of our kids. Even after the big sixth inning we responded with two of our own in the seventh. We easily could have rolled over but that’s not what our team does.
“I’m very proud of this group. I’m proud of them, proud of what they did for our community bringing them together. I’m very proud of last year’s group. These three seniors – Carson (Fox), Cole (Binkley) and Landon (Price) – took us all the way to the last day of the baseball season.”
Russia’s state championship was its second. The other came in 1971. It also was state runner-up in 2017 and 1975.
It got close to a trip to the state tournament last season when it lost a regional championship game to Fort Loramie.
“ There are a lot of people in our area who from the moment last season ended talked about getting here. Our goal was to get here. But just because you want to doesn’t mean it’s going to happen,” Phlipot said.
