CRESCENT — With the Ohio Valley Baseball League’s season on the line, veteran Barton manager Billy Timko handed the ball to 19-year-old Nolan Blackburn, but not before getting the blessing of an ultra-successful high school football coach.

You see, Blackburn will be a senior at Steubenville this fall.

He is listed as a tight end/middle linebacker for Big Red and legendary head coach Reno Saccoccia allowed him to take the mound in the winner-take-all contest.

“I begged him all day (Thursday) at football practice to let me come and pitch tonight,” Blackburn said after going the distance in a 1-0 victory over Bethany in Game 5 of the best-of-5 format. “I told him all I was going to do was pitch. I wasn’t going to run or pull anything. All I want to do is go and try to win a ballgame. He said ‘go and do it, but if you get hurt, your a– is grass, you know.'”

Timko was more than appreciative.

“Thank you, Reno. Thank you,” he stressed. “Reno told him he was in the championship game, go pitch your best, and he did. He just kept changing speeds on them.”

Blackburn scattered six singles, struck out three and walked a trio, with one of those being intentional. He needed just 88 pitches, of which 58 went for strikes. He jumped ahead of 17 of the 24 Brewers he faced.

“I noticed if I used my fastball to set up my curveball it was really effective,” Blackburn revealed. “It kept them off-speed. I also got ahead a lot and that allowed me to pitch the way I wanted to.”

Blackburn was so effective that the third-seeded Brewers (17-12) only had one runner reach third, and he was thrown out trying to score on a rocket from centerfielder Kobe Hill to catcher Zac Smith to end the top of the third.

“What a throw,” Timko said of Hill’s outfield assist, his third of the playoffs.

“We never stopped believing in ourselves,” Timko said of his team rallying from an early 2-0 hole. “Our bats came to life, as well.”

Top-seeded Barton (19-8) scored what proved to be the lone run Blackburn would need in the bottom of the fourth. Veteran Colten Coss singled to left leading off. He went to second when Josh Speaker, who was named the championship finals MVP, looped a single down the line in right. Nate Silvus moved both runners up 90 feet with a perfect sacrifice bunt and Zac Smith’s grounder to second drove in Coss.

“I’m proud of my guys. We struggled to hit the slow ball and Barton came with a slow-ball pitcher,” Bethany player/manager John Santimarino said. “We couldn’t adjust to it. Every time we face someone with velo (velocity), we hit the ball hard. Then, we face a guy who throws 65-70 and we pop up.”

Santimarino praised the mound effort of Hunter Mozingo, a 2024 Brooke alum. He yielded seven hits Thursday night in taking the tough-luck loss.

“Hunter won Game 1 and was really good today,” Santimarino added. “We just couldn’t back him up with many hits.”

The 24-year-old Speaker went 8-for-18 (.444) with eight hits (6 singles, double, home run), six runs scored and four runs batted in.

“I’ve been a good hitter my entire life. When you know you are about done (playing), that’s when you want to play your best,” Speaker, a graduate of Indian Creek who played collegiately at Bethany and Walsh, said in announcing his retirement. “It’s a good feeling to be able to go out as a winner.”

“You had Josh as the MVP, but I don’t know,” Timko added. “It seemed like someone different came up big every night.”‘

Speaker was one of three Braves with multiple hits. He joined Coss with two singles each while Hill singled and doubled.

EXTRA BASES

— The championship was Barton’s seventh all-time. It also won titles in 1996, 2009, 2010, 1012, 2018 and 2020. It was the second straight title they’ve won in Game 5.

— Bethany turned two more double plays Thursday night, giving it eight in the five-game series.

— Bethany center fielder Russ Schwertfeger made a fully extended diving catch to end the fourth with a Barton runner on third, saving a run.

— The championship trophy was presented by OVBL President Laney Simone Sr. on behalf of Simone Tire.

— The Brewers still have not won an OVBL title in their history.

— Jeff Grove (home plate) and Ryan Zielinski (bases) were the umpires.

— The crowd was estimated at 350.

— The gane took just