Another OCC "All-Sports" Title for Lexington, Orrville 5th

I wrote about this last year and it's something I try to follow each season. With the completion of another school year of sports, the Ohio Cardinal Conference has released the final tallies for their "All-Sports" Championship, a combination of points scored based on order of finish for all boys & girls sports.

And the more things change, the more they stay the same.

A Season of Champions at OHS

We sometimes (all the time?) take success for granted at Orrville.  But this needs to be appreciated.  Can you remember a more successful season than 2011-12 in terms of the number of OHS athletic teams that have had successful and sometime history-making seasons?

Let's review....

Track: Midview Division 2 District Info

Here's all you ever needed to know about this weekend's district track meet at Midview High School in Grafton. This is the first year in a long time that the district will not be hosted at Orrville.

Because of the condition of our own track and the ongoing construction of the new high school, it was decided to move the district to a new location.

Here's the tournament information page courtesy of Baumspage.com and here's the schedule of events and here's the entrants in each event and their seed times.

Orrville Baseball Wins District Title!!

It's been a dozen years since the Orrville baseball program won a district title. That streak ended last night at Norwayne High School as the Red Riders rode the backs of dominant pitching and defeated Tuslaw by a 4-1 score.

They will advance to the Massillon Regional next Thursday May 24th to face Orwell Grand Valley (the #1 seed from the Euclid District. Grand Valley was also the #2 team in all of Division 3 according to the final OHSBCA Coaches Poll.  The game will start at 2pm in the afternoon.  The field in Massillon is right behind the football stadium (click here for a map).

The other regional semifinal will pit Youngstown Ursuline against LaGrange Keystone.  The winners will meet Friday May 25th at 5pm for a trip to Huntington Park in Columbus and the State Final Four.

Back to the Riders run to a district title.  Pretty impressive that the Riders two starting pitchers in the district round gave up a TOTAL of TWO HITS in both games combined.  Juniors Trevor Kerr and Stuart Schley tossed matching 1-hitters against Norwayne and Tuslaw respectively to punch the Riders' ticket to regionals.
 I don't know anything about Grand Valley, but I do know you can go a long way with good pitching, and it sounds like we have that.  Our offense has been grinding out timely hits too, and you need that too.

The last time Orrville won a district title in baseball was the year 2000.  They also won districts in 1995, 1996 and 1998.  Their best finish ever as a program was in 1976 when then finished as Runner Up.

The last time Orrville's football, basketball & baseball teams all made regionals in the same year was the 1995-96 school year. The football team went to the state semifinals, the basketball team won state and the baseball team made the regional semis.

Sort of hard to believe this team is two wins away from a trip to the final four.  Keep it up Riders.  Congrats to Coach Marshall and his team on putting Red Rider baseball back on the map.

Reminder: OHS Sports Hall of Fame Golf Outing is June 9th

We're just about a month away from the OHS Sports Hall of Fame's largest (and only) fundraiser of the year.

This year marks the 22nd annual 18-hole golf scramble at Riceland Country Club. This year's event will take place on Sunday June 9th with registration beginning at 7:30am & a shotgun start at 8am.

Click here for all the info on the event.  The funds raised from this event help go towards funding two $1,000 scholarships to a deserving male and female OHS senior at the Senior Assembly in May.  Contact AD Kent Smith for registration (see the flyer for contact info).

As another reminder, the next biennial OHS Sports Hall of Fame induction is set for September 14, 2013.  It's never too early to consider nominating someone for induction.  Here is a link for the nomination form. 

I mention this every year, but I'll repeat myself again...if someone isn't nominated, they can't be inducted.  If you know of a classmate, friend or family member who is deserving of induction, take the first step of nominating them.  You don't need to have a complete list of every accomplishment during their high school career, just some basic information.  The more information the better, obviously, but at least get the form in and get them on the list for consideration.

For a complete list of inductees, including the class most recently inducted in 2011, click here.

Both the induction form and the list of inductees can be found under the 'Booster Club' tab at the top of the page.

Hope to see a big group of golfers at Riceland on June 9th supporting the preservation of Orrville High School's rich athletic history.

Orrville Softball Clinches OCC Title!

The Orrville Red Rider softball team put a wrap on their first ever OCC title tonight, beating rival Wooster 9-2 in front of a packed Mizer Field. They improved to 12-0 in conference play and 18-3 overall.

It's only the 2nd OCC title for any Orrville spring sport (girls track won the OCC in 2008) and one of just a handful of team conference titles since joining the league in 2003. I know football has shared an OCC title and we've won at least one in girls basketball and volleyball each.  But it's been slim pickings other than that.

Thanks to softball parent Lisa Kauf for the great photo.