Central District Division II Championship
No. 6 Westerville 3, No. 2 Teays Valley 1
ASHVILLE — On an afternoon when hits were hard to come by, Westerville South made the most its few to claim a Central District title 3-1 over Teays Valley Friday afternoon.
Each team was limited to four hits in the contest with Teays Valley getting three in the second.
The host Vikings’ Caden Wood and Peyton McElfresh had back-to-back one-out singles in the bottom of the second and each advanced a base on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Tanner Kelley.
Cameron Grubb singled on a ground ball to left to score McElfresh.
TV went down 1-2-3 in the third and fourth.
Cole Kisner had a two-out double in the fifth but the Vikings couldn’t bring him around.
Jayden Morrison reached on an error in the sixth and McElfresh drew a leadoff walk in the seventh as TV’s only other baserunners.
After going down 1-2-3 in the first two innings, the bottom of the lineup got things started for the Wildcats as they opened the third with a single and the runner moved up on a sacrifice bunt.
After a strikeout, Chase Crawford singled to center to drive in a run and Theo Montemarano followed with an RBI double to give South a 2-1 lead.
After going down 1-2-3 in the fourth and fifth, South collected its other to hit in the sixth
Montemarano led off the inning reaching on an error and advanced on a groundball out. Connor Owdom then singled on a line drive to center bring in the Wildcats’ third run.
Tanner Kelley started for the Vikings and went five innings.He gave up two earned runs on three hits, walked one and struck out six.
Landon Helser pitched an inning of one-hit relief, giving up an unearned and recording a strikeout.
Tanner Smith pitched a hitless seventh with one strikeout.
Chase Crawford threw all seven innings for South. He gave up one earned run on four hits with a walk and three strikeouts.
The Vikings finish up their season with a 17-12 record.
Westerville South (18-11) advances to the Division II regional at Grove City Wednesday. The Wildcats will play New Albany (22-7), which was the No. 1 seed in the Central District and won its title game 11-0 over Licking Heights in five innings.