T-L Photo/KIM NORTH MAYNARD’S HUNTER Westlake slides safely into home plate with the first run Sunday in Game 4 of the Ohio Valley Baseball League’s championship series on Henning Field inside Crescent’s Pramesa Park. The Indians won 14-0 to clinch the best-of-5 three games to one. Westlake earned Most Valuable Player honors.

CRESCENT — Maynard left no doubt about who was the best team in the Ohio Valley Baseball League in the summer of 2021.

The second-seeded Indians (17-7) banged out a dozen hits and Mackenzie Koehler turned in a complete game effort on the mound in a 14-0 shallacking of defending champion Barton in Game 4 Sunday afternoon on toasty Henning Field inside Pramesa Park.

“We had our ups-and-downs early, but then we caught fire and it seemed like it carried over game after game,” Maynard player/manager David Vicker said. “We got hot and never stopped. I think we won something like 13 of our last 14.

“The bats woke up today and Mac had a great effort on the mound,” Vicker said. “We’ve had outstanding pitching, timely hitting and great defense all season. When you play well in all three of those aspects, you usually come out on top.”

The contest was scoreless after three as Koehler and Barton’s Austin Bassa matched zeroes. However, four runs in the fourth, six in the fifth and four more in the sixth turned the game into a rout.

“It didn’t snowball on us today. It was an avalanche,” veteran Barton manager Billy Timko said of the fourth through sixth innings. “It was hit-after-hit-after-hit. When they get on a roll they are tough to beat, but my guys had a good season. We faced a lot of adversity this season.”

Championship series MVP Hunter Westlake doubled leading off the fourth. Tyler Ramsay walked and B.A. Holloway bunted for a base hit to load the bases. With the count 1-0 on Mason Ramsay, Westlake raced home when a pitch in the dirt got away. Tyler Ramsay and Holloway also moved up 90 feet, and Mason Ramsay smacked the next offering back up the middle to make it 3-0. Eric Banal’s RBI single off Kaden Blomquist’s glove at third allowed Mason Ramsay to score for a 4-0 reading.

Maynard sent 11 batters to the plate against three Barton pitchers in the six-run fifth. Westlake doubled in Matt Busby and Tyler Ramsay singled in Westlake. Three base-on-balls, two errors and Busby’s RBI single accounted for the other tallies.

Klay Cottis stroked a two-run double to dead center and Vicker and Banal had run-scoring groundouts to cap the scoring.

“Like I said after Game 1, you have to bring your ‘A’ game when you play Barton, and I think we definitely did that today,” Westlake said. “When we are all clicking, we’re tough to beat. Today was one of those days.”

Barton never got a runner past second base.

“I think it took a lot out of us. That was a game we had won,” Timko said of Game 1 in which Barton blew a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the seventh, and a four-run lead in the ninth before falling in the 10th, 8-7, “but Maynard has a great baseball team. They put their hitters in the right spot in the lineup,” Timko said. “They played well.”

Vicker said Westlake deserved the MVP.

“Hunter hit the cover off the ball all summer and he didn’t stop in the playoffs. He’s a hitting machine and I’m glad he is on my team.”

Westlake singled and doubled twice. He finished the series with eight hits and six runs batted in. Holloway, a 13-year veteran who won his seventh title, added three singles. Busby singled twice.

“We played really well today,” Koehler, a 10-year veteran who struck out four, walked three and only allowed three singles in the first three innings, said. “The key to this championship was our defense. We made some really good plays today.”

<*p(0.0,0.0,0.0,10.0,0,0,g)*C>GAME NOTES

<*p(0.0,10.0,0.0,9.5,0,0,g)*L>∫ The championship trophy was sponsored by Simone Tire Service of Fairpoint.

∫ Sunday’s attendance was calculated at just over 300.

∫ The winner’s share of the 50/50 Sunday was $262.