KIRTLAND—Matthew Kahley’s RBI single in the bottom of the seventh inning on Wednesday helped Kirtland earn a season sweep of Edgewood.
The Hornets cruised to a 10-1 win at Edgewood on Tuesday and followed that up with a 2-1 win over the Warriors at home to finish off the season sweep of the reigning Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division champions.
With the win, the Hornets improved to 11-3 overall and 7-1 in league play with four conference games remaining.
“We’re just going game by game,” said Kirtland coach Luke Smrdel. “We held our own, but it was a battle all day long. We did a great job of not losing our composure. We made a couple of errors, but we recovered right away. Seeing these guys make big plays in the moment, that’s a great sign moving forward.”
To earn the season sweep of the Warriors, the Hornets had to go through reigning CVC Valley Division MVP Logan Kray, who toed the rubber for Edgewood.
After Kirtland pitcher Trip Thaler struck out the side in the top of the first, the Hornets went right to work in the bottom half of the inning.
Tyler Turk drew a one-out walk, Luke Chuko reached on an error, and Adam Knaak walked to load the bases.
Kray fanned the next two Hornets to end that threat.
Kahley hit a one-out single in the second and Nate Chuko reached on an error to set the Hornets up again with a runner in scoring position. Both runners moved up a base after a Kray balk, but again the Edgewood ace worked out the jam to maintain the scoreless tie.
A two-out error allowed the Warriors to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the third on Kray’s RBI single, but the Hornets responded with a run in the bottom half of the inning.
Luke Chuko and Knaak drew back-to-back walks to start the inning and moved up a base on Thaler’s sacrifice bunt. After a popout, the Warriors intentionally walked Macguire Boyd, who homered against them on Tuesday, and Kahley delivered the first of his two RBI singles to tie the game.
Thaler pitched out of several jams, including one in the sixth when freshmen Nate Chuko and Xavier Lasecki teamed up on a double play.
“We know Trip has great stuff,” Smrdel said. “He did it against Cardinal and North when he started, and we knew he’d go out and get the job done. We just gave him the ball and let him do his thing, and he did a fantastic job again today.”
Edgewood had two runners on base in the seventh, but Thaler wouldn’t be denied.
With Kray forced off the mound by the maximum pitch count, the Hornets faced a new pitcher in the seventh inning.
Knaak hit a one-out single, Thaler was hit by a pitch, and Casey Carkhuff singled to load the bases with one out. Boyd hit a ground ball that bounced hard and high off the turf, but Edgewood pitcher Zane Naylor made a leaping grab of the ball and threw home for the force out just before Knaak slid across the plate for the second out.
Kahley then hit the third pitch he saw past Edgewood shortstop Ethan Detrick and into center field for the walk-off win.
“That’s the stuff you like to see,” Smrdel said. “If you want to win, you have to make things happen and we did today. Hopefully, we can keep making those things happen moving forward. Our guys are gaining a lot more confidence each and every day and that’s a good sign for the future.”
Kahley had quite a day as he finished 3-for-3 with two RBI. Knaak and Carkhuff had Kirtland’s only other hits in the game.
Thaler went the distance on the hill. He allowed one unearned run on six hits and fanned 11.
Naylor went 3-for-4 with a run scored to lead the Warriors. Kray was 1-for-4 and he struck out 11 Hornets in six innings.
“He was unbelievable today,” said Edgewood coach Jeff Barger of Kray. “He gave up two hits and one of them went about 12 feet, but I told him that’s baseball. We gave up a couple of walks and that hurt for sure, but the way we played (on Tuesday), it was nice to see them come back and compete because we just didn’t play our best baseball.”
