Clippers are rested and waiting for United

Morning Journal/Matt Morrison
Columbiana starting pitcher Anthony Hall pitches during a no-hitter against Leetonia on Friday.

LEETONIIA — Columbiana stayed in contention for the Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference championship with a 10-0 combined no-hitter victory over Leetonia in five innings on Friday.

“The game last about an hour and eight minutes, so it was good to get out of here (early),” Columbiana coach Bryce Franken said. “We had guys waiting back and shooting the ball to right center. I love to see that and then for Anthony Hall and Sam Inboden to come out and take care of business on the mound to throw a no-hitter, that’s awesome.”

Columbiana improves to 10-6 and 7-0 in the EOAC, while Leetonia drops to 6-9 and 1-6 in the EOAC.

Hall started the game for the Clippers and had five strikeouts, no walks and one hit by pitch through three innings before Inboden came in and completed the no-hitter with three strikeouts and no walks through two innings of work.

“It feels pretty good,” Hall said. “It was my first no-hitter. My goal from the start was to throw strikes and that is what I did.”

“It felt pretty good,” Inboden said. “It was my first varsity no-hitter that I pitched and it is one of the first varsity games that I pitched.”

The next week is a crucial week for Columbiana as it will play United on Monday and Wednesday, which will decide the EOAC championship.

“Last year we went undefeated in the EOAC with a league championship,” Franken said. “That was huge and that was after losing the league to United the year before, so it is kind of like a rubber match.”

Columbiana lined everything up perfectly, so that it’s two aces will have enough rest for the games against United.

“We are starting Devin Daugherty on Monday and Alex Eusebio throwing on Wednesday,” Franken said. “I give a lot of credit to my pitching coach Hank Schlueter. His management of our pitching staff is awesome. He makes sure guys are ready to go and gives them the rest they need all of the time. We have been setting these guys up for the last month for this series.”

Daugherty had two RBIs, including an inside-the-park home run that put the Clippers on 1-0 in the first inning.

“When I saw that he (Franken) was waving me around third I was wondering what was going on back there because I didn’t look,” Daugherty said. “When he waved me in luckily I scored, thank goodness.”

Daugherty will look forward to pitching against United on Monday.

“It has pretty much been us and United the past three years and it has always been really good games,” Daugherty said. “I am really excited for it. I don’t really have to get my self hyped up it is United. I have always been pretty amped up to play them.”

Eusebio had two RBIs, two runs scored and two hits, while Ian Less had base-loaded triple in the second inning and he scored on an error on the play that gave the Clippers a 7-0 advantage. Max Conway and Avery Young each had one hit and one run scored.

Columbiana has been adding games with competitive opponents to prepare for the upcoming series with United and as well as the upcoming tournament.

“We play Ursuline (Saturday) and we played Hubbard on Thursday,” Franken said. “We love to see good competition and good arms. It sets us up for well for what we are going to see in the tournament. The league championship next week essentially is huge, but we are looking to make a deep tournament run with this senior class that we have.”

Columbiana has seven seniors, including Daugherty, who would love to help bring home a second consecutive league championship.

“It would mean the world to me,” Daugherty said. “Senior year and everything it is always nice to go out on top especially in the league.”

Leetonia respects how solid Columbiana is as a team and will try to get to that level in the future.

“They are a great team and have a great program over there in Columbiana,” Leetonia coach James Skragg said. “We are trying to get to that step. We played good baseball tonight no errors we just didn’t hit them”

Leetonia has played 12 games in 13 days and have had multiple injuries, including during the game when starting pitcher CJ Faulkner came out after one inning of work due to an injury to his throwing arm.

“We popped something in his elbow,” Skragg said. “He is at the hospital. I don’t have any details yet.”

Faulkner allowed eight earned runs on four hits with one strikeout before leaving the game. Mason Cibula came in and allowed two earned runs on three hits through three innings of work.

Skragg thinks that it will be a toss-up on will win the league title.

“They (United and Columbiana) are both playing good baseball,” Skragg said. “I would like to be there to see that game.”

Columbiana will host Ursuline on Saturday, while Leetonia will play Mathews at Eastwood Field on Tuesday.

L: 0-0-0-0-0– 0-0-2

C: 1-7-1-1-x–10-7-0