​WHEELERSBURG — The end of an era, or time spent together coming up through a Little League system, is difficult — and especially hard when the goal of a state championship doesn’t work out.However, the baseball journey — and, quite honestly, the life journey — of the members on the Wheelersburg 50-70 All-Stars’ group is just beginning.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAnd while they may not have ultimately claimed their goal of winning a state title and getting the opportunity to play for more hardware at the regional level, Drew Sampson’s group certainly put together a state championship-esque effort.The Wheelersburg 50/70 All-Stars got a complete game one-hitter from Jett Thompson on just 52 pitches and got seven hits between Thompson, Zander Feeman and Brady Sampson en route to rolling over Canfield, 13-0, in a five-inning mercy rule Sunday afternoon, forcing a rematch against Bellevue later on Sunday in the 2026 Ohio Little League Intermediate (50-70) State Championship.Needing two wins to stay alive, Wheelersburg tied the score on two separate occasions against Bellevue but wasn’t able to claim victory as the Burg 50-70s fell to the Bellevue 50-70s, 7-4, earning 2026 Ohio State Runner-Up honors in the 50-70 Division Sunday at Gene Bennett Park in Wheelersburg.Having been involved in the development of many of the kids on Wheelersburg’s 50-70 All-Star unit for at or over half of their lives to this point, one could certainly understand why Sampson was emotional following the official end of the 2026 season and the current 50-70 Baseball All-Stars’ run together as Little Leaguers.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe emotions, however, didn’t overshadow what Sampson believed was a gritty effort.”That was a tough one,” Sampson said. “Bellevue is a tough team, and they put the bat on the ball, one-through-12. They put it in play, and that’s what you have to do in Little League. When you do that, good things happen. They definitely did that a little bit better than we did today, and were able to get some runs on the board, but I couldn’t be more proud of our team, and how far we came. They never quit. They never quit until the end. You can tell by the emotion how much the boys wanted it, and how much they love this sport.”Game 1 — Wheelersburg 13, Canfield 0 (F/5)In Sunday’s opener against Canfield in consolation play, Wheelersburg proved to be locked in from the outset.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFollowing a leadoff groundout, six of the next seven Wheelersburg 50-70s reached base, including both Thompson and Feeman, who shot back-to-back singles into the outfield to tag-team for the contest’s first run. Walks by Jax Davis, CJ Allen, and Cole Bays, along with a hit batter, allowed ‘Burg to take a 3-0 lead after an inning of work.The back end of Wheelersburg’s order then helped to get things started in the second inning, as one-out free passes by both Cooper Hammond and Josiah Clark were followed by a two-out single