Westfall Upsets Zane Trace- But Pioneers Still Assured Share of SVC Baseball Crown

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(UPDATED 10pm 5/3/24) – Huntington 6, Unioto 4 (Completion of rain-suspended game. Zane Trace is outright SVC champion at 12-2, while Unioto finishes at 11-3.)

The (4-10/6-11) Westfall Mustangs scored eight unanswered runs after trailing 3-0, to upset Ron Allen’s SVC Baseball Champion (12-2/18-4) Zane Trace Pioneers Wednesday. The Pioneers conclude their (12-2) conference and an SVC Championship, their 6th in school history.

The Pioneers grabbed the early lead with two runs in the first and one in the second for a 3-0 lead. ZT notched their two (first inning) runs with a Landen Jarrell RBI double and an RBI single off the bat of Ezra Rippeth. They added a run in the bottom of the second on Blake Phillips’ RBI single for the 3-0 advantage.

But after that, Westfall left-hander Noah Stonerock kept the Pioneers off balance, allowing base runners, but never surrendering a run.

Trent Gardner relieved Stonerock in the bottom of the sixth inning with runners at first and second and hit a batter to load the bases, but then closed the door in that Zane Trace threat. The Pioneers loaded the bases again in the seventh inning only to see Gardner strike-out the final batter to end the game.

Westfall got on the scoreboard at 3-1 in the top of the third inning with an RBI single from Brenden Tuttle. A fielders choice by Trent Gardner in the fourth inning made it 3-2, followed later by a Zane Trace pass ball to score a runner from third to tie the score at 3-3.

Coach Brian Wolfe’s Mustangs took the lead with two runs in the top of the fifth on a Trent Walters RBI double then an RBI single from Noah Stonerock for a 5-3 advantage.

Westfall played add-on in the top of the seventh inning with a Stonerock RBI sacrifice fly followed by a two-run single off the bat of Brady Mullins for the 8-3 eventual winning score.

Brenden Tuttle led the Mustangs offense with a 3/3 night and Brady Mullins was 3/4 with two RBI’s. Stonerock also drove in two runs and got the win on the mound, with Gardner picking up the save.

Westfall had 8 runs/8 hits/2 errors while Zane Trace had 3 runs/9 hits/2 errors.