The Centerville baseball team played heavily favored Shenandoah in the first semifinal round game of the 2A sectional on Saturday, May 31, in a game that went an extra inning before it was decided. The game was an emotional rollercoaster for both teams’ fans and players.
The Bulldogs, who upset Northeastern in the opening-round game of the tournament, had the seventh-ranked Raiders on the ropes. The early innings were dominated by errors, hit batters and walks. Centerville scored an unearned run in the top of the first inning, which the Raiders answered with two runs in the bottom half of the inning on three walks and one hit. The Bulldogs scored two more runs in the top of the second inning, aided by a hit batter, two errors and two walks to retake the lead at 3-2. The Raiders came back with four runs in the bottom of the inning on only one base hit. Through the top of the third inning, the two teams had combined to score 10 runs, but only collected four hits between them.
The Bulldogs made a pitching change, bringing in freshman Jacob Alford in the bottom of the third inning. The freshman shut down the high-powered Raider offense, holding them scoreless for the next four innings while the Bulldogs whittled away at their deficit, scoring a single run in the top of the fifth inning and adding three more runs in the top of the sixth inning to retake the lead at 8-6. After holding the Raiders scoreless in the bottom of the frame, the Bulldogs took an 8-6 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning before the first two Raider batters were hit by a pitch and the next batter drew a one-out walk to load the bases, bringing about another Centerville pitching change. Another walk forced in a run, and a sacrifice fly scored a run to tie the game and send it to extra innings.
The Raiders held the Bulldogs scoreless in the top of the eighth inning and then scored a run in the bottom of the eighth inning to take a 9-8 walk-off win. With the win, the Raiders advanced to the championship game, where they will face Hagerstown on Monday, June 2.
Chase Clark and Arian Van Skyock each collected two hits for the Bulldogs, and Garrett May had two hits for the Raiders.
Centerville (5-13) 1 2 1 0 1 3 0 0 8
Shenandoah (20-4) 2 4 0 0 0 0 2 1 9
Centerville hits: Clark (2), Jackson Lear, Aiden Nelson, Nick Tinkle, Van Skyock (2) — Shenandoah hits: Ezra Byrd, Maddix Davis, May (2), Ashton Renz
A version of this article appeared in the June 4 2025 print edition of the Western Wayne News.