Photo by Cody Tomer Madonna’s Matt Amaismeier, bottom, slides safely into second base, while Wheeling Central shortstop Payton Hildebrand attempts a tag during Friday’s game.

By CODY TOMER

Sports Writer

WHEELING — Madonna baseball coach Jeff Baire remembers when he suited up in a Blue Dons uniform and how hard it was to defeat Wheeling Central on the diamond.

Well, now he’s getting a taste of victory in that matchup.

Trailing 5-4, Madonna plated five runs in the top of the seventh inning to stun Wheeling Central on Friday by a score of 9-5, advancing the Dons to the Class A Section 1 Championship Series on Saturday at Cameron.

The Dons must defeat the Dragons twice to move on to the regional, while Cameron needs just one victory.

“These guys have been a thorn in our side for years, even when I played here,” Baire said of Central. “To be able to come down here on their field — we don’t usually play well here — and to be down in the seventh and score five and get 12 hits in the game, that’s awesome.

“We put ourselves against a wall earlier in the week but we got hot hitting and hopefully we can carry that through the weekend.”

The loss ends the season for Central and the careers of four players — Michael Toepfer, Ben Foster, Caden Ondrejko and Shannon Looney — who coach Jason Rowe and the program will miss.

“Those four seniors, I can’t say enough about them,” Rowe said.

“Benny was 4-3 with a 0.96 ERA and he gave his all. Michael comes out here and gives it his all every time. He’ll play at the next level. Those seniors are some of the best kids I’ve been around since I’ve started coaching.”

After a Brock Reinacher RBI single in the top of the seventh evened the score at 5-5, Lucas McAllister provided the hit of the game. With the count full, McAllister delivered a two-run single to give Madonna a 7-5 upper hand.

Leadoff hitter Kolten Grischkevich followed with a 10-pitch at-bat that culminated with a two-run triple to give the Dons a 9-5 lead they would not relinquish.

“Those are two freshmen who are very smart baseball players,” Baire said of McAllister and Grischkevich. “Lucas has been one of the guys who has had the most quality at-bats this season, even if his average doesn’t always show it. Kolten, too. They have battled all year and they showed up again (Friday).”

Blue Dons’ pitcher Parker Haney slammed the door in the bottom of the frame to secure the victory.

He finished with four strikeouts and one walk in the complete game triumph.

“They were hitting him but he just kept battling,” Baire said of Haney. That’s all you can do. We made our traditional errors that opened the door for them but we battled through. All you can hope to do is win, survive and play the next day.”

Madonna opened the scoring with a three-run first inning on four hits.

Grishkevich began the game with a double and raced home on a RBI knock from Matt Amaismeier for a 1-0 edge.

Then Amaismeier stole second, allowing Luke Amaismeier to race home from third for the game’s second run.

Brycen Hair added the third run of the frame with a sac-fly to right field.

It wasn’t until the bottom of the third when Central recorded its first hit — a single by freshman Luke Tiu. That got the train rolling for the Knights as Gary Hatfield provided a two-run single to right field and Ben Foster tied the game on a line-drive RBI single to right.

“(Tiu) got it started for us and we just followed his lead,” Rowe said. “We got in a groove in that inning and put up some runs with good at-bats.”

The Maroon Knights secured their first lead of the night in the fourth as Payton Hildebrand collected a RBI single to plate teammate Braxton Billick. Toepfer added another run with a RBI double to deep center field to create a 5-3 Central cushion.

Hair pulled the Dons within one run in the fifth with his second sac-fly of the game, before Reinacher, McAllister and Grischkevich provided the clutch hits in the seventh.

Hair also had two hits for Madonna, as did Reinacher and Matt Amaismeier.

“We’ve had so many games go against us in the past,” Baire said. “It’s nice to push through and finally get a big one like this.”

Two of those tough games for the Dons this year came against their next opponent as they dropped a 2-1 decision to the Dragons early in the season and lost on a walk-off in the OVAC Championship 6-5. They did, however, defeat Cameron 8-2 in between those two contests.