photo by: Kim North

Linsly’s Chris Upton slides safely across home plate as Martins Ferry’s Eli Smith fields an errant throw. Upton gave the Cadets a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but the Purple Riders rallied for an 8-4 victory in an OVAC Class 3A semifinal on Holloway Field.

WHEELING – Martins Ferry was the last team to punch its ticket into the OVAC Class 3A Baseball playoffs last Friday. Now the Purple Riders will play in their third championship game in the last five seasons.

That came about Monday afternoon on cloud-covered Holloway Field as the third-seeds doubled up host Linsly, the No. 2 seed, by an 8-4 count before a nice-sized crowd on the Linsly campus.

With the cherished victory, Martins Ferry (6-4) advances to the championship game this weekend against the winner of Tuesday’s matchup between No. 4 Monroe Central and top-seeded Wheeling Central. The game, which was rained out on Monday, will begin at 5 p.m. on the Wheeling University diamond at the I-470 J.B. Chambers Complex above Elm Grove.

Veteran Martins Ferry head coach Anthony Reasbeck found himself in a dilemma shortly before game time as starting pitcher Eli Smith developed a sore shoulder while warming up. Enter Ayden Ludolph.

“I wanted the ball the whole time,” Ludolph said after working into the fifth before handing the ball over to Colby Kropka. “I just wanted to go out there and mow them down. I want to thank God for helping me do what I did. I didn’t have my ‘A’ game today, but I did what I could do and let my defense make the plays.

“We put all of our cards on the table and said let’s go,” he added. “We battled and battled.”

Ludolph, who has signed to play football at the University of Rio Grande, said he never received any offers to play baseball.

The senior lefty struck out five and walked two. He worked his way out of a jam in the third when the Cadets (10-8) had runners on second and third with no outs after Chris Upton reached on an error and Carson Gessler belted the first of his two doubles. However, Ludolph got a strikeout, induced a grounder to third and another roller to first to escape unscathed.

“That was huge,” Reasbeck stressed. “Ayden asked me earlier in the day when I thought he would pitch. I told him I wasn’t sure. I was planning on breaking them up because I knew neither one of them was going seven innings. He deserves a lot of credit. He was a senior stud out there today. He has grown up over the years. He’s played in so many big games for us, I knew he would have a good game today.”

Although he wasn’t able to use his arm to help his team, the sophomore catcher didn’t have any problem with his bat with his first home run of the season, a two-out, three-run shot that capped a five-run top of the second. Sophomore Christian Shutler had an earlier RBI single, as did Ludolph.

“The first at-bat I was just thinking of getting a base hit,” Smith explained of his first-inning single. “But the second at-bat I was thinking right-center. I made good contact and the ball just happened to go over the fence.”

Of the nine sports in the order, eight recorded at least one base hit, with Smith and Christian Shutler having two each.

“This was a total team effort. These guys are fun to be around but with us still being rather young, we start five sophomores, two juniors and a freshman, I still do not know what to expect.

“We can look like the Yankees one night and the Pirates the next. That’s what makes it so difficult because you never know what might happen.”

Leading 5-1, Martins Ferry watched as Linsly scored single runs in the fourth and fifth frames to inch to within 5-3 on a fielder’s choice and an RBI single by Patrick Christ, but Hunter Shutler, another promising sophomore, slapped a two-run single in a three-run sixth as the Purple Riders provided Kropka with some breathing room.

Gessler’s second two-bagger preceded a run-scoring single by Jaxon Murray in the sixth to make it 8-4, but Kropka retired the final four batters to earn the save.

“Evan has battled for us all season,” Linsly head coach Jay Cartwright said of starting pitcher Evan Zido. He left a couple of pitches up early and they’ve got some really good hitters. It was a good baseball game. We just came up a few runs short. We stranded a lot of runners.”

Zido took the mound instead of senior Rocco Paolina, the Cadets ace who was injured over the weekend while running the bases.

Martins Ferry finished runner up in 2021 before winning the title a year later. It was eliminated in the semifinals the past two seasons.

Linsly lost in the championship game last summer to Wheeling Central.