BOARDMAN — Caiden Trent waited all week for his moment.
When it finally arrived, the Hamilton West Side Little Leaguer delivered one of the biggest hits of his young baseball career.
Trent ripped a two-run walk-off double in the bottom of the sixth inning Friday, July 24, rallying West Side to a dramatic 4-3 victory over Canfield at Boardman’s Field of Dreams and securing the program’s 23rd Ohio Little League state championship.
Trailing 3-2 and down to its final three outs, West Side put together one final rally before Trent’s liner skipped beneath the glove of Canfield’s right fielder, allowing Walker Osborne and Finn Dykes to race home as teammates spilled from the dugout in celebration.
“It feels great,” Trent said. “It was very nerve-racking just going up there. I was just hoping all the runs got in. Once I saw it went under his glove, I knew I had to get on second base and be quick.”
The victory sends West Side to the Great Lakes Region in Whitestown, Indiana, where the Ohio champions will play for a berth in the Little League World Series. West Side opens up regional play against Michigan at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 8.
The championship game was a fitting finale between two teams that had already played one thriller earlier in the week. West Side edged Canfield 6-5 in the winner’s bracket before the clubs met again Friday with the state title on the line.
Canfield struck first, capitalizing on a pair of West Side defensive mistakes to score twice in the opening inning.
West Side answered in the second without collecting a hit. Josiah Infante walked to start the inning and eventually came around to score on a passed ball. Bobby Frazier also walked before scoring to knot the game at 2-2.
Canfield reclaimed the lead in the fifth when a passed ball allowed the go-ahead run to score.
But it was West Side’s bottom of the lineup that ignited one final push.
Osborne led off the sixth with a single before Finn Dykes executed a perfectly placed bunt for another hit. Zach Hilton then battled through a lengthy at-bat before Trent stepped into the batter’s box.
West Side manager Tim Nichting said Trent’s game-winning swing was the result of work the young catcher had put in during practice.
“We’ve been fighting with him to swing level,” Nichting said. “The night before practice, Caiden was hitting line-drive bullets. Hats off to Caiden for sticking with the process. It couldn’t have happened to a better kid.”
Dykes said he never lost confidence after reaching first base.
“I remembered what he’s done at practice,” Dykes said of his teammate. “He was doing great that day, and he had a good attitude the whole time. I was pretty positive he was going to get a hit.”
When Trent connected, Osborne scored and Dykes sprinted around the bases.
“Once he got that hit, I was running as hard as I could,” Dykes said. “When I saw the fielder run straight through the ball, I was just running my heart out.”
Dykes stumbled rounding third but recovered in time to slide safely across home plate with the winning run.
“After I slid home, it was just absolute chaos,” Dykes said. “Everyone was going crazy. It was fun.”
West Side’s comeback would not have been possible without a shutdown relief appearance from Walker Osborne, who tossed two scoreless innings without allowing a hit after replacing starter Xander Kinkade. Kinkade surrendered three runs — only one earned — over four innings while striking out three.
Trent drove in both runs on the decisive double, while Osborne, Dykes, Bryson Williams and Trent each collected a hit. Frazier stole two bases for West Side.
“We always preach it takes 12 to win the game,” Nichting said. “I’d say that’s what we did today.”
“We just had to stay focused and keep playing our game,” Trent added. “We knew we could come out. We just had to have the confidence.”
