SHELBY — The Chargers were electric Thursday afternoon.
Pitcher Ben Bates gave up just three hits and Clint Finnen belted a three-run home run as defending Division III state runner-up Edison blanked Crestview 7-0 in a Division III district semifinal game at Shelby High School.
GALLERY: Edison 7, Crestview 0
Top-seeded Edison beat No. 4 Crestview 7-0 in a Division III district semifinal game Thursday at Shelby High School. (photos by Curt Conrad, staff reporter)
The Chargers (21-4) will play Sandusky Bay Conference Bay Division rival Oak Harbor for the district title at noon Saturday in Shelby. Oak Harbor beat Wynford 9-0 in Thursday’s late game.
A hard-throwing right-hander, Bates was brutally efficient on an unseasonably cool and blustery afternoon. He threw 53 of his 87 pitches for strikes and didn’t allow a Crestview runner past second base.
“He’s one of the best pitchers in the district and he showed it,” Crestview coach Don Keener said. “I thought we did a good job of putting the bat on the ball. We put it in play and made them field the ball.
“They played all three phases of the game well. They pitched, had timely hits and played defense.”
The Chargers scored all the runs they would need in the home half of the first. Carson Smith and Hayden Fry stroked back-to-back one-out singles and came around to score on Marcus Medina’s two-out triple to right.
Edison pushed it to 3-0 in the second on Finnen’s single to left. The left handed-hitting Finnen blew the game open two innings later when he turned on an 0-1 offering from Crestview’s Jarek Ringler and deposited it over the wall in right for a three-run homer to make it 6-0.
“He’s always hit it hard that direction,” Edison coach Sean Hoover said of Finnen. “That was big. We were only up three at the time and funny things can happen.”
Finnen led the Chargers with two hits and four runs batted in. Medina had a pair of hits and two RBIs.
Owen Barker had two of Crestview’s three hits. Klint Patton had the other.
Ringler went the distance, surrendering nine hits and six earned runs. He struck out three and walked one.
“I thought Jarek pitched well today,” Keener said. “The kid turned on the one, but that’s part of the game. You know he’s going to give you a chance to win every time he is on the mound.”
The loss brought an end to a remarkable season for the Cougars (20-5). Crestview won an outright Firelands Conference championship, capping a school year that saw the Cougars win FC titles in football, basketball and baseball.
“I told the guys they have nothing to be ashamed of,” Keener said. “(Edison) is state runner-up for a reason.
“We knew we had to come out and play well and execute when the opportunities were there.”
The Chargers will play Oak Harbor for a third time this season after splitting two regular-season games. The winner advances to next week’s regional tournament at Patrick Henry High School.
“They are a hungry group,” said Hoover, who picked up his 300th career coaching victory Thursday. “They loved the journey last year and they want to take it as far as they can this year.”