Four years have passed since Chardon baseball made history at Canal Park.
The 2022 Hilltoppers entered the OHSAA Division II Final Four seeking the first state championship in program history. Two days later, they were celebrating atop the podium after surviving a pair of dramatic one-run games and defeating the defending state champions.
Looking back, the championship weekend was defined by resilience, timely hitting, and one remarkable trend.
When Chardon needed its season-saving moments most, the Hilltoppers found them in the sixth inning.
Semifinal Survival
Chardon opened the state tournament against Bishop Hartley on June 10, 2022.
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The Hilltoppers grabbed an early lead in the first inning before Hartley answered to tie the game at 1-1. For the next four innings, neither team could create much separation. Chardon carried a slim 1-0 lead into the bottom of the first before the Hawks immediately answered, and the game remained deadlocked deep into the evening.
Then came the sixth inning.
With the score tied 1-1 and six outs separating each team from either a trip to the state championship game or the end of its season, Chardon delivered its biggest offensive inning of the year.
The rally began when Stone Fawcett singled and later raced home on a triple by Leo Colombi. Kyle Maronde followed with an RBI groundout to make it 3-1. Ethan Faber walked, and Will Francis doubled down the left-field line to keep the pressure on. Christian Hall added a sacrifice fly, Nolan Kirsh reached on an error that brought home another run, and Heath Fetchik capped the inning with an RBI single.
When the dust settled, Chardon had scored five runs and turned a tense pitchers’ duel into a 6-1 advantage.
Bishop Hartley refused to go quietly.
The Hawks answered with four runs in the bottom of the sixth, cutting the deficit to a single run and putting the tying run on base. But Chardon escaped the inning and retired the side in order in the seventh to secure a 6-5 victory and advance to the state championship game.
Colombi led the offense with three hits, while Francis added two hits and scored twice. Kirsh earned the victory after working six innings and striking out six.
Championship Saturday
Twenty-four hours later, Chardon returned to Canal Park to face defending state champion Archbishop Hoban.
The championship game followed a familiar script.
The Hilltoppers scored twice in the second inning, but Hoban answered immediately. The Knights took a 4-2 lead after three innings and pushed the margin to 5-3 in the fourth.
With only six outs remaining, Chardon trailed by two runs.
Then the sixth inning arrived again.
Colombi opened the inning with a single, and Faber was hit by a pitch. Francis was also hit to load the bases. Hall delivered an RBI single to center field to cut the deficit to one run. Moments later, Kirsh was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, forcing home the tying run. A wild pitch then brought Francis home, giving Chardon its first lead since the second inning.
The Hilltoppers weren’t finished.
Jake Barker followed with a two-run single to left field, scoring Hall and Kirsh and completing a five-run outburst that stunned the defending champions and gave Chardon an 8-5 lead.
The Knights never recovered.
Chardon shut down Hoban over the final two innings and secured an 8-5 victory, earning the first baseball state championship in school history.
Barker finished with two hits and two RBIs, while Hall, Francis, Maronde, and Faber each drove in a run. Fatur delivered 2.2 innings of scoreless relief to help preserve the victory.
A Championship Defined by the Sixth Inning
Championship teams are often remembered for a defining moment.
For Chardon, there were two.
Against Bishop Hartley, the Hilltoppers broke open a tie game with five runs in the sixth inning to earn a trip to the state final. Less than 24 hours later, they erased a two-run deficit with another five-run sixth inning to knock off defending state champion Hoban.
Ten sixth-inning runs in two days transformed a talented team into state champions.
Four years later, the accomplishment remains one of the greatest achievements in Chardon athletic history—a weekend when the Hilltoppers proved that championship baseball is often less about how a game begins and more about how it ends.
