AKRON — One of these days, the Northview Wildcats will have to get around to winning a league baseball title.
Exactly when that happens is really of no big concern to 10th-year head coach Greg Szparka and his team, who on Saturday won the school's first state baseball championship with a 6-1 triumph over Grove City in the Division I final at Canal Park in Akron.
The Wildcats (26-8) scored two runs in the third inning and another in the fourth, and rode the strong pitching of senior right-hander Blake Bradford to complete their storybook season.
“This is unbelievable,” said Szparka, a 2002 Northview graduate and former player who began coaching as a Wildcats assistant in 2003. “I've been in Sylvania my whole life. I went to school there and played there, and it's unbelievable to bring this [title] back.
“There were so many doubters of what we were doing. These kids proved them wrong and won it all. That's crazy to think.”
Bradford recorded the final out, snaring a line drive off the bat to Grove City's Trent Ruffing.
“I don't know if I'm going to take the ball out of my glove until they make me,” said Bradford. “It'll be a memory for a while.”
Northview is the first team from the immediate Toledo area to win a Division I state baseball crown since Start in 2000, and the third overall. Clay was the first in 1979, and Start's first championship came in a 31-0 season in 1994 in which the Spartans were also acclaimed as national champions.
Hitless through two innings, the Wildcats took a 2-1 lead in the third.
Left fielder Braden Tackett and second baseman Benny Seals drew back-to-back walks to start the inning against Grove City's Zak Sigman, who then fanned right fielder Riley Ames. Shortstop Brodey Acres delivered a clutch two-run double down the right-field line to put the Wildcats on top.
“We just don't stop swinging the bats, and we don't try to make the game bigger than it actually is,” Acres said. “It's just the game of baseball, and we train for it year in and year out. There is no doubt in our minds, if we're down, we can score some runs to get back ahead.
“We were making history the whole way, and there was no reason to stop now. We came into this game with so much energy and, once we scored a couple runs, there was no turning back.”
In the fourth inning, Northview added to its lead when Alex Prymas led off with a triple to right-center, and catcher Garrett Draper followed with a line-drive single to center.
The Wildcats added two more runs in the fifth, after Sigman had been relieved.
Leading off, Bradford was hit by a pitch. First baseman Alex Dupree drew a walk, and designated hitter Benny Crooks singled to left to load the bases with no outs. A failed suicide-squeeze attempt by Prymas resulted in a successful triple steal when the low pitch trickled away from Greyhounds catcher Grady Speegle, allowing Bradford to dive home safely.
Prymas eventually struck out, but Draper scored Dupree with a sacrifice fly to center for a 5-1 Northview lead.
“I don't know how far-fetched it was.” Draper said of Northview's state title. “It just took everyone in our program to believe in each other. At the end of the season, we believed in each other, we picked each other up, and it paid off. We're state champs.
“Team chemistry is huge. All offseason we worked at becoming brothers, and this past three weeks the state tournament run has been awesome.”
In the sixth, singles by Seals (2-for-2), Acres (2-for-4), and Dupree (2 RBI) upped the Wildcats' lead to 6-1.
“From the beginning of the year we knew we had something special,” Seals said. “I don't know if we could see us winning the state championship, but we knew we had something special, and there was always a chance.
“We were already shocking the world by coming down here, so we'll take it, underdog or not. A state championship feels nice.”
After allowing the first-inning run, Bradford settled in, yielding just four hits in his complete-game win, striking out six.
“There were some nerves early but after that we settled down, didn't make any costly errors, and just played our game,” Bradford said. “That double [by Acres] was huge and he's been doing it all year, stepping up in big moments and getting us runs. It switched the game and gave us momentum, and it gave me a lead to pitch with.”
Grove City (26-8) took a 1-0 in the top of the first inning.
Jackson Ware ripped a one-out triple to deep center field ahead of a walk to Dennis Ritlinger-Nirider, who stole second. An errant throw on the steal by Draper allowed Ware to trot home. Grove City managed just two hits after the first inning.
“Blake is the most competitive kid I have ever coach in my 20 years here,” Szparka said of Bradford. “He does not like to lose. I had all the faith in him, and I know the boys did. He was not good out of the gate, but he locked in and was phenomenal over the last six innings.”
Before this year, like the league-title drought, the Northern Lakes League runner-up Wildcats had never won a district championship. That drought ended two weeks ago when Northview topped sixth-ranked NLL champion Perrysburg 3-2 in a district final at Liberty-Benton.
That was after Northview was almost eliminated far short of becoming state champion. After seven innings of scoreless play in the district semifinals, the Wildcats yielded a run to Clay in the top of the eighth before rallying for a 2-1 win in the bottom of the eighth.
First Published June 11, 2022, 10:48 p.m.
