MANTUA—Kirtland scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning to pull out a 3-0 win in a key Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division showdown at Crestwood on Monday.
With the win, the Hornets are alone at the top of the CVC Valley Division standings with a 7-0 record. Crestwood dropped to 6-1.
“We’ve had a couple of games like this where we haven’t been able to get the big hit, but we’ve stayed focused at the plate,” said Kirtland coach Luke Smrdel. “We’ve put runners on base, and kept pressure on the defense, and that goes a long way in the long run.”
Kirtland broke the scoreless tie in its last at-bat.
Ben DiFranco led off with a double, and Matthew Kahley followed with a one-out RBI double to ignite a three-run rally.
“I’ve been struggling the past couple of games, but I knew I had to go make contact,” Kahley said of his at-bat. “We had Ben on second, it was a 0-0 game, and we had to get at least one run going into the seventh. I just had to box it up and get something to the outfield.”
Nate Chuko followed with a single, and Xavier Lasecki reached on a two-out error that allowed both Chuko and Kahley to score.
“We had to be aggressive,” Smrdel said. “(Wyatt Januska) had been around the zone all day; he pitched a great game, but we had to get on him early. Ben did just that, hit the ball to the fence, and Matthew drove him in. We took advantage of those little opportunities like that, and we got the win.”
Max Paul slammed the door with a 1-2-3 seventh to cap off an 11-0 start to the season for Kirtland.
Kahley went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored to lead the offense, while DiFranco, Chuko, Lasecki, and Casey Carkhuff each went 1-for-3.
Paul earned the win in seven shutout innings and allowed just four hits with seven strikeouts.
The Hornets will go for the sweep on Tuesday when Crestwood visits Recreation Park.
“We know their hitters a little better now, so we’ll change our approach,” Smrdel said of the message going into game two of the series. “We just have to be ready to go. We take every game pitch-by-pitch, that’s what we’ve been doing all year, and it’s been working.”
Crestwood, much like Kirtland, threatened throughout the game but never delivered the clutch hit.
“It was a great ballgame, but we should be able to hit the ball better than we did,” said Crestwood head coach Christopher Stanley. “They had timely hits, we didn’t. We made some errors and gave them extra opportunities, and anytime you put extra outs on the board, it’ll come back to haunt you. We have to learn from it.”
The Red Devils fell to 6-5 on the year and 6-1 in CVC Valley play, but can come right back and tie the Hornets in the league standings with a win on April 29.
“We have to make the fundamental and routine plays,” Stanley said. “We have to put pressure on the defense by hitting the ball. We just have to get after it tomorrow, it’s a new day, a new ball game, and it’s 0-0. We have to get that split and stay atop the standings with them and compete to get ready for the tournament.”
Christopher Mory, Evan Rhodes, Cameron Gross, and Bobby Bradley all went 1-for-3 for Crestwood.
Januska takes the loss after going 6 ⅓ innings, allowing one run on seven hits with nine strikeouts. Steven Lincoln pitched the final ⅔ of the seventh and struck out one batter.
Crestwood and Kirtland square off at Kirtland on April 29.
