STEUBENVILLE - It was a great way to win a baseball game, but a brutal way to lose one.
Both Derek Miller and Chris Stevens scored in the bottom of the seventh inning on Dillon Williams' line-drive triple to dead center field for a 7-6 victory against Steubenville Central in the OVAC Class AA championship.
''That ranks up there,'' Crusaders coach Frank Spence said of the loss. ''That's baseball. That's sports. You have to take the good with the bad. It just seems like we've had our share of bad this year.
''I thought we played our hearts out. I thought (Mickey Bednar) pitched his heart out. We played hard. We competed. We were enthused. It just didn't go our way in the last inning.''
Added Linsly coach Jay Cartwright: ''I knew if we kept the pressure on them we'd get a chance.''
Linsly loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth inning, but Bednar struck out Leighton Gibson with a fastball. Gibson blasted a two-run homer two innings earlier.
''(Bednar) made a great pitch on our cleanup hitter who's been red hot,'' Cartwright said. ''It was a perfect, outside corner fastball that he couldn't catch up with. They stopped us there and got the momentum back. It was was one of those games where momentum went back and forth with two teams just competing really hard.
''It was a really good high school baseball game.''
Steubenville Central's Jordan Teramana blasted a three-run shot in the top of the first inning. Linsly answered with two in the bottom of the frame. The Crusaders scored twice in the top of the third for a 5-2 lead and once in the top of the fifth for a 6-3 cushion.
''I have no complaints about how we played,'' Spence said. ''They're a very good team no matter what class. They are one of the better teams in the valley and we're an out or two away from winning.''
For the Cadets, this was their big tournament.
''We're not members of the SSAC, so this is out No. 1 goal every year, to win this tournament,'' Cartwright said. ''This is the 15th time that we've pulled it off. I'm very proud of these kids. They showed a lot of passion for the game to be down the way there were. Win or lose, it would have been an excellent effort.
''Hats off to Steubenville Central. They're well coaches and play the game very well.
''We both have amateur players and we're both going to make some mistakes and the momentum shifts back and forth. They got the big three-run home run in the first inning and we helped them out with some mistakes and some walks. They hit the ball in the clutch.''