AKRON — Throughout its memorable tournament run, Harrison Central developed into come-back kids.
During its seven-game winning streak to reach Saturday night’s Division III state championship, the Huskies had rallied for victories in four of those games, including coming from seven runs down to win the regional against Wheelersburg.
Similar to the regional, Buckeye 8 Athletic League’s Harrison Central found itself down 7-0 after two innings. Unlike the regional, the Huskies were never able to stop the bleeding and it eventually resulted in a 10-1 loss to Apple Creek Waynedale, which successfully defended its 2022 state championship.
Though disappointed, Harrison Central head coach Mike Valesko was able to compartmentalize the run that the Huskies had just went on en route to finishing with a 20-13 record. They won the school’s third district title, second regional title and played for the first state championship.
“It’s so hard to get to this point,” Valesko said. “In a single-elimination (tournament) and to go through what you have to go through, you’re resetting every seven days. If you had told me when (Tre) Rex got hurt and (Kaden) Jurosko got hurt in our first sectional game (and couldn’t pitch) that we’d be playing in the state championship game, I probably would have went and bought some lottery tickets.”