COLUMBIANA TAKES FIRST MVHSBL TITLE

By Mark Franken

Columbiana, OH-  The Columbiana Clippers won the inaugural, and hopefully only, Mahoning Valley High School Summer Baseball League championship here Saturday afternoon with a convincing 20-10 rout of the Salem Quakers.

After two tightly contested innings, the Clippers blew the game wide open with six runs in the third and 7 runs in the fourth.  Chase Franken went four innings for Coach Ryan Wolf striking out five and giving up four hits.  He gave up one earned run and left the game with a 20-5 lead after the fourth.  Joey Wilczak finished the game for the Clips.  Brock Young, Seth Seddon, and Joey Watson pitched for the Quakers.

For Columbiana, freshman Bayden Pipoly reached base and scored in all four at-bats.  Senior Ryan Fahs had 4 hits, 4 rbi, and scored three times.  Franken singled, tripled, and walked three times scoring in all five at-bats.  It was a fitting end for the Clippers all-time leader in triples, doubles, extra-base hits and runs scored.  With the 2020 statistics not counting towards school records, Chase ended his career one hit shy of the school’s hit record.  Logan Hoschar and Brady Kridler added three hits each.

Salem was led by senior Ricky Enlow and junior Nick Coletta who each singled and doubled.  Brock Young, Hunter Carlisle, and Lane Rhodes also collected hits.  

Congratulations to coaches Mike DeBarr of Salem, Wolf of Columbiana, and all the other area coaches who made sure 2020 was not a total loss for baseball.