CHAMPION--  Whiting Roll-Offs, OH

RUNNER UP-- Knightline, OH

BATTING CHAMPION--  Justin Theisen, Boys of Summer

MVP--  Ben Miller, Whiting Roll-Offs

Championship Game Final Score-- Whiting Roll-Offs 12 Knightline 4

STRUTHERS, Ohio — The NABF played the 79th Senior Division World Series in its 109-year history. Bob Cene Park hosted it, this time as a stand-alone event, where 15 teams from New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania competed. Teams split into three pools of five, and the top eight — Astro Falcons, Boys of Summer, Knightline, Whiting Roll-Offs, SAYO Grays, Ohio Longhorns - DeMarino, Troy Legends, and Ohio Longhorns - Spears — advanced to the quarterfinals.

Whiting took care of SAYO 11-1, and then the Falcons defeated Longhorns - Spears 9-2 to face off in an all-Youngstown Class B semifinal. The Roll-Offs upset the Falcons 9-3 and scored three times the runs Astro allowed in four pool games.

On the other side of the bracket, Knightline won a one-run contest against Longhorns – DeMarino, its second of the tournament, by a score of 2-1. Boys of Summer met Knightline in the second semifinal by defeating Troy 8-2. Knightline’s offense exploded for 13 runs off Boys of Summer pitching and only gave up a lone run, advancing to its second consecutive NABF Senior Division championship game.

Nate Freeland started for Knightline, who worked a scoreless first inning but got into trouble in the next frame. Aidan Leiendecker and Nick Parrotto hit back-to-back singles, and two batters later, Nate Thomas drove on an error by Freeland. Tyler Mikulin’s RBI single brought home Parrotto, making it 2-0 Whiting.

Knightline cut the lead in half when Caden Maffitt singled off Nathan Craig bringing home Logan Cayavec. Whiting answered the next half inning on an RBI triple by Leiendecker to give them a 3-1 advantage. Craig kept Knigtline off the board in the bottom of the third as he retired them one-two-three.

Whiting grabbed a three-run cushion via a Ben Miller bases-loaded walk with two outs and had a chance for more, but Leiendecker struck out, which stranded three base runners. Craig continued his strong outing by tossing scoreless frames in the fourth and fifth, allowing just a single runner to reach on an Andrew Brown single. In between, Alex Nicholson threw up a zero in the fifth as he got a 6-3 double play and did it again the next inning in which he struck out a pair.

As the game was heading to the bottom of the six, the umpires saw lighting, meaning the game entered a delay. Play resumed an hour and three minutes later, and Knightline made it a 4–3 ball game by scoring two runs on singles from Brown and Maffitt. Craig stranded the tying and go-ahead runs by producing Tyler Capan to hit into a 6-3 groundout.

Whiting responded in the seventh in a big way as they sent 14 batters to the plate, and eight scored, with two coming on Mikulin’s single, plating Nick Thomas and Nate Thomas for the third and fourth runs of the inning.

Corbin Sevick pitched the seventh for Whiting, giving up a two-out run on Cayavec’s single after walking Andrew McRoberts and Ty Eberhardt. Brown grounded out to Nate Thomas at short, making the Roll-Offs the Senior Division World Series champions.

Following the runners-up and championship trophy presentations, Steve Leslie of Youngstown Class B announced the All Tournament team along with the Batting Champion and MVP. Justin Theisen of Boys of Summer was the Batting Champion after hitting .600 with two doubles and six RBIs, and Miller took MVP honors by batting .500, collecting four extra-base hits — two doubles and two triples — and nine RBIs.