WADSWORTH — Cue the 2010 DJ Khaled song “All I do is win.” The Wadsworth baseball team is still undefeated.
 Craig Palidar  Wil Rock  Nick Bebout |
No. 9 hitter Wil Rock provided the icebreaking hit, Nick Bebout and Craig Palidar bombed line-drive home runs and Bebout made history on the mound Wednesday as the Grizzlies again picked apart Suburban League rival Copley with a 5-1 victory in the Hudson Division I Sectional finals.
The top-seeded Grizzlies (24-0), who improved to 29-0 at their 2-year-old home field, advanced to battle No. 4 Brecksville (21-5) in the district semifinals Tuesday at The Ball Park at Hudson. The Bees held on to defeat fifth-seeded Medina 4-3.
“Coach (Greg Pickard) definitely talked to us that one of the hardest things to do in a season is beat a team three times,” Rock said after receiving a cupcake to the face from Mason Egleston. “We came out, played our game and won.
“We just stayed the way we have been all year. We’ve been hitting off really all pitchers.”
Playing a little more serious than usual, Wadsworth scored one run apiece in the second, third and fifth innings while also getting two in the fourth to keep the seventh-seeded Indians (17-9) from grabbing any momentum.
Seven players got a hit — Toledo recruit Riley Campbell was 3-for-4 — all nine batters in the lineup reached base and a different Grizzly scored each run. Wadsworth also forced Copley left-hander Justin Hovorka (4-2) to exit after only four innings because his pitch count was at 93.
It was balanced offense that Pickard has come to expect.
“I thought we did a good job of extending a few innings,” he said as “All I do is win” blared in the background. “We got (Hovorka’s) pitch count up a little bit and got to the bullpen.”
With the game scoreless and Wadsworth playing a tad sloppy, the 5-foot-7, 184-pound Rock and 6-1, 232-pound Chris Byers provided the game-changing spark with two outs in the bottom of the second inning.
In only his 14th plate appearance of the season, Byers worked a four-pitch walk against Hovorka. Rock, who entered play in a 4-for-27 slump, then took two pitches before hammering a 1-1 pitch into the left-center field gap.
Byers chugged home without a throw after the ball rolled to the fence, and Rock stood on the second-base bag and let out a roar coupled with a mini-Hulk Hogan arms flex toward his dugout.
Wadsworth kept rolling after that.
“Throughout the season, I’ve kind of not been hitting so well,” said Rock, who is batting .224 but is second on the team with 14 walks. “I came back just now — luckily in time to get that hit. It was a 1-1 fastball outside, and I just drove it.
“That was a good feeling, a good feeling.”
Keyed by Rock’s double, the Grizzlies methodically tacked on insurance. The score moved to 2-0 on Palidar’s laser in the third, 4-0 in the fourth when Jared Houser smacked a single to center that scored Rock and Campbell and 5-1 when Bebout cranked freshman reliever’s Tyler Hays’ first pitch of the fifth into the left-field trees.
The rest of the nippy afternoon belonged to Bebout (8-0, 1.02 ERA), who tied pitching coach Bill Gearhart’s career school record with 24 wins.
The right-handed Walsh recruit allowed three hits — Chris Brennan had an RBI single in the fifth before Bebout induced an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play — struck out three and needed only 67 pitches to beat Copley for the second time this season. He also earned two milkshakes from Gearhart after only needing five pitches apiece to complete the sixth and seventh innings.
The latter inning involved standout defense, as first baseman Dylan Palidar caught a foul ball against the fence, catcher Craig Palidar snared a swirling pop-up behind the plate and Dylan Palidar scooped a one-hop throw to end the game after second baseman Adam Dennison made a diving stop in the hole.
Fittingly, Bebout’s Medina County-leading fourth home run of the season came in his first at-bat after seeing his consecutive innings without a walk streak end at 36 innings — unofficially the fifth longest in Ohio history.
“I was pretty mad about that (walk),” Bebout said with a grin. “It broke the streak I had going, but I made up for it.”
Notes
In 14 innings against Copley this season, Bebout threw 28 balls and 117 strikes.
• Hovorka hurled 38 pitches in the fourth inning, which ended when Craig Palidar flew out deep to center with the bases loaded.
Contact Albert Grindle at (330) 721-4043 or agrindle@medina-gazette.com.
Wadsworth 5, Copley 1
Hudson Division I Sectional Final
Copley (17-9) Wadsworth (24-0)
AB R H BI AB R H BI
Brennan ss 3 0 1 1 Campbell ss 4 1 3 0
Maynard cf 3 0 1 0 Houser lf 3 0 1 2
Wharton 2b 3 0 0 0 C.Palidar c 3 1 1 1
Correia c 2 0 0 0 Pennington 3b 3 0 0 0
Moses 1b 2 0 0 0 Dennison 2b 3 0 1 0
Deagan rf 3 0 0 0 D.Palidar 1b 4 0 1 0
Doubell dh 3 1 1 0 Bebout p 3 1 1 1
Hovorka p 2 0 0 0 Byers dh 2 1 0 0
Roddy lf 1 0 0 0 Rock rf 2 1 1 1
Zelch 3b 0 0 0 0 Robinson cf 0 0 0 0
Hays p 1 0 0 0
Totals 23 1 3 1 Totals 27 5 9 5
COPLEY 000 010 0 — 1 3 2
WADSWORTH 011 210 x — 5 9 1
DP — Wadsworth (5-4-3). E — Brennan, Moses, Dennison. 2B — Campbell, Rock. HR — C. Palidar, Bebout. LOB — Copley 4, Wadsworth 10.
IP H R ER BB SO
Copley
Hovorka (L, 4-2) 4 7 4 3 5 2
Hays 2 2 1 1 1 2
Wadsworth
Bebout (W, 8-0) 7 3 1 1 1 3
HBP — by Bebout (Correia). WP — Hovorka.
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