TRENTON — Edgewood High School is playing its best baseball in recent weeks.
And the Cougars have their first conference championship since 2008 to show for it.
Zack Boyle hit a two-run homer, Carson Downie pitched a complete-game shutout and Edgewood beat visiting Franklin 4-0 on Wednesday to claim a piece of the Southwestern Buckeye League Southwestern Division title.
“This was huge for us,” Edgewood first-year coach Austin Hatfield said. “We’ve had to update our wall with a new banner for a while, and I keep saying it’s coming next week. But now we’ve got to wait even longer to put this one on there.”
The Cougars won the Fort Ancient Valley Conference outright in 2005, 2006 and 2008 under Brian Caudill. They’ll have to share this one with Ross and Monroe, with all three finishing SWBL Southwestern play at 6-2.
“We wanted to win it with just us, but sharing it is also nice,” said Downie, a junior who ended things Wednesday with one of his nine strikeouts, a thumbs-down gesture and a backflip on the mound.
“It’s the first time in a long time. This just means a lot. We’ve been playing for this all year. It’s great to finally see results.”
Edgewood (17-7) has won eight in a row, including a 10-4 victory over Lakota East on Monday. Hatfield is an East graduate and former Thunderhawks assistant who still has plenty of ties with the baseball program.
“That was a big one,” Hatfield said of the win at Lakota East. “I’ve known those guys really well. We played really well over there.”
Franklin (10-14) has lost four in a row, six of its last seven and went 0-8 against SWBL Southwestern opponents. But Wildcats coach Kyle Wainscott said his squad competed well enough to be able to win those conference games.
“We played everyone tough,” Wainscott said. “But it is what it is. You don’t win, you don’t win. I feel bad for our couple of seniors, but we plan on making a little bit of a run to try to see what we can do in the tournament.
“We’re just missing a hit here or there to win a couple games. We will have one bad inning, but we’re a lot better than last year. So anyone who has followed us or has covered us since last year, we don’t have very many more wins, but we’re substantially better on the mound and at the plate.”
Wednesday started at 0-0 in the third inning and was a continuation from a postponed game earlier this season.
Boyle doubled and Downie singled to start the bottom of the fourth. They eventually scored on a pair of balks by Franklin starter and sophomore Zach Beeson to give Edgewood a 2-0 lead.
Downie got himself out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the sixth, and then sophomore JJ Vogel singled to set up Boyle’s two-run bomb that made it 4-0 in the bottom of the sixth. Vogel and Boyle each went 2-for-3.
“I knew it was gone,” said Boyle, a senior second baseman. “I let the bat fly a little bit. I probably shouldn’t have, but I was in the moment. I let the bat fly.
“We were able to get up early and just work off of that 2-0 jump. After that, we were just able to play with the lead and be a little more confident. The rest just led to everything else.”
Beeson pitched four innings for the Wildcats, giving up two runs on four hits and striking out four. Senior Luke Eyink came in to pitch the last two.
Junior Aiden Standifer, junior Connor Monk and Eyink accounted for Franklin’s three hits.
“You can ask any of these guys and they’ll say that we’re not the worst team in this league,” Wainscott said. “Our record shows we are, but I don’t think we are.
“We try to do things the right way, play the game the right way. It’ll pay off in the long run. This team is good. I don’t care what anybody says.”
Wainscott said he’s looking for his Wildcats to bounce back at Carlisle and against Valley View on Senior Night this weekend.
“We’ve got a big game Friday — a little crosstown rivalry,” Wainscott said. “It’s my favorite game of the year. I know it’s not a league game. That shouldn’t be my favorite game, but I love those guys over there. Chris Hawkins is one of my good friends.
“But it’s ugly. It’ll be nasty, but it’ll be respectful. … There won’t be no cussing running around the bases if we hit a home run or bat flips through the moon that about knocked out the umpire. But it will be competitive as hell — like two teams that’s getting after each other with mutual respect at the same time.”
Franklin opens Division III postseason play at home against Greenville next Wednesday.
Edgewood finishes its regular season at home against Colerain on Monday before hosting Kings in a Division II tournament opener next Thursday.
