Chagrin Falls and Independence won their district semifinal games and will play for a district championship on Wednesday.
Beachwood, Kirtland, and Perry weren’t as fortunate as each saw their postseason runs come to an end with a district semifinal loss on Monday.
Chagrin Falls needed nine innings—and heads-up baserunning by senior Donny Hardy–to down Black River in a Division III district semifinal at Norwayne High School
Pitching dominated the contest until the bottom of the ninth when Hardy singled to left field on a 1-2 pitch. The speedster then took off for second on a steal attempt and moved to third on an error.
Black River attempted to throw Hardy out at third, but again, the throw was off the mark and he plated the lone run of the game and sent the Tigers to Wednesday’s district championship game against defending Division III state champion Applecreek Waynedale.
“Coach gave me the steal sign, I took off and the ball kicked away (from the shortstop),” Hardy said. “I’m like, ‘I am going again,’ so I took off to third, ran into the third baseman and the ball kicked away again. Then there I am, I made it myself to home (plate).”
Chagrin Falls coach Michael Sweeney never hesitated to flash the steal sign to Hardy.
“Anytime Donny’s up to the plate, we feel pretty good about our chances to do something positive,” he said. “I just thought to myself, if we could just get him on base, I knew we could steal him over at some point. They tried to make a play on him, threw it away, and we scored the winning run. I’ve never seen that before in my career.”
Hardy finished the game 2-for-4 with a run scored. Gavin Stevens, Drew Mergenhagen, and Charlie Reeder also had hits for the Tigers.
Will Graham started on the mound for the Tigers and allowed just one hit and struck out seven in seven scoreless innings. Stevens threw the final two innings to pick up the win. He struck out four and didn’t allow a hit.
Independence won its second straight one-run postseason game by edging No. 2 Akron Manchester, 2-1.
Manchester scored a run on a controversial balk in the bottom of the first but the Blue Devils scored a run in the top of the second and one more in the top of the third and then turned to its pitching staff and defense to hold off the Panthers.
“We knew we were going to be facing one of the best pitchers in our district, and we had a game plan at the plate and on the mound,” said Independence coach Jim Crooks. “We worked the plan and their guy threw well, but we were just a little bit better today.”
The Blue Devils had their hands full with Manchester pitcher Owen Canter, a Walsh University recruit. Canter entered the game 6-1 with a 0.13 earned run average and 96 strikeouts in 53 innings.
He crossed the 100-strikeout barrier in the game after fanning five Blue Devils, but Independence outhit the Panthers, 7-3, and turned three double plays on defense.
“This was probably our best defensive performance of the season,” Crooks said. “We had three double plays and some big outs to end innings.”
Trailing 1-0 in the second, Rory Corrigan, Dom Narduzzi, and Luke Pascarella each singled to start and Narduzzi scored on a wild pitch that evened the score, 1-1.
Max Tarnowski hit a one-out single in the third and scored on Evan Beacher’s RBI single.
“You have to respond when the other team goes up by a run,” Crooks said. “In our two tournament games so far, we’ve had to do it in both games, offensively and defensively. We talk about winning innings, and we came back and won two innings after that first inning. I’m proud of how they battled back against a well-coached team and pitcher.”
Sam Crooks and Cy Jolliffe—with the help of the Blue Devil defense—took it from there.
The Panthers posted their leadoff batter at first base in both the second and third innings, but double plays ended those threats. Manchester’s first two batters singled in the sixth, but Independence turned its third double play of the game and a groundout ended the inning.
Crooks started on the mound for the Blue Devils and lasted 2 2/3 innings before giving way to winning pitcher Jolliffe, who threw 4 1/3 scoreless innings.
Crooks allowed one run on one hit and struck out two. Jolliffe allowed two hits and struck out four.
Pascarella led the Blue Devils at the plate as he finished the game 2-for-3. Max Tarnowski and Jolliffe also had hits for the Blue Devils, who will play top-seeded Triway for the district championship on Wednesday at 5:00 p.m.
“I think our guys going into this game feel like we can beat anybody right now,” Coach Crooks said. “That’s a great place to be at this time of the season.”
The No. 6 Blue Devils will play top-seeded Wooster for the district championship on Wednesday at Tri-C’s West campus.
Beachwood gave defending Division III state champion Waynedale all it could handle before falling to the Golden Bears, 4-3, at Norwayne.
The Bison held a 3-1 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh inning.
Beachwood got on the scoreboard first in the top of the third inning when senior James O’Neill singled to left and scored on senior shortstop Luke Bennett’s RBI single.
The Bison would add a run in the top of the fourth when senior Brett Zawatsky singled and then scored on a fielder’s choice and an error.
Leading 2-1 in the top of the sixth, Zawatsky and O’Neill singled to help the Bison load the bases. A Bennett walk increased Beachwood’s lead to 3-1.
Waynedale’s leadoff hitter in the seventh drew a walk and the next batter singled. A groundout cut Beachwood’s lead to 3-2, and a passed ball allowed the Golden Bears to score the tying run. Back-to-back walks loaded the bases and a double gave Waynedale the walk-off win.
“I think we had lots of opportunities on offense to score runs,” O’Neill said. “We had bases loaded two times in two innings. We could have put six or seven runs on the board, but we just put three.”
Beachwood closed out its season with a 20-7 record, the most victories in school history, and back-to-back conference titles.
Kirtland’s season came to an end with an 11-1 five-inning loss to Garrettsville Garfield at Cene Park in Struthers.
The Hornets committed four errors in the game and managed just three hits.
Tyler Turk, Luke Chuko, and Casey Carkhuff each reached based safetly for the Hornets and Trip Thaler and Gino Blasini each struck out two in the loss.
- Photo Gallery
Coach Matt Platt of @Perry_Pirates baseball says his team just needed a big hit in a district loss to Lakeview today. pic.twitter.com/d7Mv3rIlhC
— News-Herald preps (@NHPreps) May 23, 2023
Perry also came up on the wrong end of the scoreboard at Cene Park as top-seeded Lakeview scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth and beat the Pirates 6-0.
Lakeview scored one run in the first and another in the fifth.
The Pirates matched Lakeview’s five hits but couldn’t get the clutch hits it needed to plate a run.
Owen McKoon went 3-for-3 for the Pirates and Kyle Rhineberger and Logan Buehner each had one hit.
Jason Pentek struck out three in five innings of work.
- Photo Gallery
Coach Luke Smrdel of @kirtandbaseball laments a district loss to Garrettsville today. pic.twitter.com/JnRHMsK8Ly
— News-Herald preps (@NHPreps) May 23, 2023
Alan Kornspan contributed to this story
