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2026 OHSAA Tournament: Division IV State Final - #5 Perkins vs #14 Bishop Fenwick

AKRON - After coming up a run short a year ago, Perkins made the next step and captured a state championship with a 5-1 win over Bishop Fenwick in the Division IV title game on Sunday morning.

"We knew what we had coming back and that made last year a bit easier,but it's so hard to get back, you never know," explained Perkins head coach TJ Blanton. "What this means for Perkins .. we've been so close so many times for three years but we've never got over the hill. We can finally say we got over the hill."

The Pirates, a 3-2 loser to Mentor Lake Catholic in last season's D-IV finals, wasted no time in taking control against Fenwick, the 14th-ranked team in the state, scoring three runs in the first and one in the second to go in front 4-0.

Talon Walton hit a one-out single and scored on a Carter Koch triple for the first run. Kash Koch brought in his brother with a single ending the day for Fenwick pitcher Carter Shouse, who left with an injury. A bases-loaded-walk to Dante Shipp brought in the third run of the inning for Perkins, with Walton personally adding a run in the second with a single, two stolen bases and a wild pitch.

The senior two-hole hitter knew he had to do whatever he could to bring home a title.

"We got in the weight room in the offseason and everyone wrote down state champ, state champ," Walton reflected. "We wanted to get back to Akron. We took all that anger back here and won a state championship."

Fenwick did trim the deficit to 4-1 in the third on a Hudson Kreke single and a Caleb McMonigle double. However, the fifth-rated D-IV team got the run back in fifth when Sam Schweinfurth singled and came home on a Shipp double down the right-field line.

That was more than enough for Braxden Martin, who went the dstance for the victory.

"It was that drive to win a state championship," Martin said. "Bringing that dog out. We all found it deep in us. We knew how badly we wanted it and I believed we'd play like that. We wanted to come out and get that win.

"I had only one goal going out there - state championship," Martin added. "We came up short so many times. To finish the job and go out with a win senior year the last time ever playing a high school sport, it's crazy."

The performance by the senior right-hander did not surprise Blanton, who cosidered pulling Walton late in Saturday's semifinal game to save him for the finals.

"I knew whoever we played was excited to keep hearing Kash (Koch) and Talon, Kash and Talon," Blanton said in reference to the top two hurlers that pitched in the semifinals but were not available to throw in the title game. "But Braxden Martin, from the time he was young it was Talon and Braxden on the mound Sunday playing for the championship.

"We've been saving his arm, plus he's so good at third. I looked at him in the fifth inning (on Saturday) and I thought maybe I'd pull Talon and put him in and save Talon for today. But when I looked at him he had that look in his eye, which said he wanted to finish this story. Three times he was at state in wrestling. He fell a point short of a football championship and a run short here last year. That look he gave me brought me back to my 18-year-old self and that was it. I knew from there, I knew they were in trouble. We call him the Bulldog and I knew what he'd give us."

The state title was the first ever for Perkins, runners-up in 2025 and semifinalists in 2014 and 2007.

"What a relief," Blanton said about his first thoughs upon winning the title. "I felt we were carrying a little of the school with us. We fell short, we fell short. You don't know when you're going to get back here, if it ever even happens. To finish the job, it was a moment of relief. I'm so excited for the guys."

Winning it all is certainly special.

"I've been with this group of guys since I was three-years-old," Walton noted. "We played VFW and then seven of us played travel. We've been with the same organization our whole life. That means so much more to win with them. We just have this great bond."

What a different feeling it is from a year ago.

"Last year I was the pitcher on the mound and felt all the emotions of losing," Walton reflected. "Getting this, I can't put it into words. I've never been this happy. I've never cried tears of joy like that my whole life. I'm so happy to get the community a championship."

HOT TAKES

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Martin looked anything but like a number three hurler with an outstanding performance for Perkins. The senior right-hander threw 108 pitches, 70 for strikes, in his six-hit outing, fanning five and allowing two free passes.

D-IV TOURNEY MVP: The value of Walton is evident on the field and the uncommitted senior showed it at state, playing shortstop in the semis before being needed to pitch and responding with four two-hit shutout innings for the win in a 12-7 victory over Cardinal Mooney. Walton also had a single, scored two runs, drove in two and stole a base. In the finals, the 5-11 190-pounder played third base while doing his damage on the bases with three steals to go along with two singles and a walk, getting on base all four plate appearances.

WHAT'S NEXT?: .Shouse is a great player to build a team around and Fenwick has that next year with the sophomore LHP/CF. Anthony Snyder, the winning pitcher in the state semis, completes a one-two punch on the mound, with top-of-the-lineup hitters Hudson Kreke and Isaac Barker adding firepower to a team that will certainly be one of the favorites next year. Kreke, who had a nice diving catch in center field to get the Falcons out of a bases-loaded two-out jam in the first and scored the lone run for the Falcons, is the grandson of Pat Kreke, who was the head coach the most recent time Fenwick was at state in 1982 and the last time they won a championship in 1981. ... The whole outfield returns for Perkins in a quest for a third trip in a row to Akron. Sophomore catcher Carter Koch brings more experience to the Pirates and head coach  Blanton, who will win his 100th game at the school early in the 2027 campaign.

LINESCORE

Bishop Fenwick    001  000 0  -  1  6  2
Perkins                  310  010  x  - 5  7  1

Records: Perkins 25-5-1, Penwick 23-9.

Winning Pitcher: Braxden Martin (7 innings, 1 run, 6 hits, 5 strikeouts, 2 walks).

Losing Pitcher: Carter Shouse (0.1 innings, 3 runs, 3 hits, 0 strikeouts, 0 walks). Others: Caleb McMonigle, Ty Miller.

Leading Hitters: (Bishop Fenwick) - Hudson Kreke single, run; Carter Shouse single; Caleb McMonigle double, RBI; Isaac Barker single; Jude McCullough single; Connor Enderle single. (Perkins) - Talon Walton 2 singles, 2 runs; Carter Koch triple run; Kash Koch single, run; Sam Schweinfurth single, run; Braxden Martin single; Dante Shipp double, RBI.

*** Click here to view our State Predictions ***chweinfurth single, run

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