DIVISION II BASEBALL Poland dooms itself in regional defeat

Bulldog errors and a sporadic offense aided Canton Central Catholic's 8-3 win.
By ROB MEYER
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
STRUTHERS -- The Poland High baseball team's toughest opponent in Friday's Division II regional tournament wasn't Canton Central Catholic, the team in the opposing dugout.
It was the Bulldogs themselves.
Thanks to poor execution and sporadic offense, Poland's season ended in a regional semifinal for the second straight season in an 8-3 loss to Canton Central Catholic (30-1).
But five errors and an extremely long second inning ultimately caused Poland's demise.
"We did things today we haven't done in two years," said a visibly-frustrated coach Steve Rohan of Poland (23-4). "We didn't hit the ball and we didn't execute. But, we are trying to stay positive."
Good first inning
After blanking Canton Central Catholic in the top half of the first inning and scoring a run of its own in the bottom half, Poland came into the second inning with no idea of what was to come.
Poland starter John Hay (6-1) allowed a single to the first batter of the inning, but then retired the next two Crusader hitters. However, with two outs, Hay then walked Canton first baseman John Mines.
That's when the trouble started.
Mike Affolter singled off of Hay, which scored Alex Schmid to tie the game at 1. Moments later, Hay attempted to pick Affolter off at first base, seemingly getting the third out of the inning. But the play was botched, and Affolter avoided getting tagged out.
With the inning still going, Canton's No. 9 batter Jimmy Lindesmith drove in Mines to put the Crusaders in front 2-1.
Canton's Chad Spencer was up next, and he reached base after Poland first baseman Sean Clayton committed an error trying to throw Spencer out. Affolter scored, making the score 3-1.
Poland was finally able to end the inning down 4-1 after another Canton run. Of Canton's four runs in the inning, only two were earned. And just about each of the Canton batters who reached base with two outs had two strikes on them.
"We saved our worst game for last," said Poland senior Jonathan Habuda, who had two sacrifice hits in the game. "Things didn't go our way that inning, they just kept getting worse."
The top of the fourth inning proved much of the same for Poland. After two more Bulldog errors, Canton was able to score two more runs to make the score 6-1.
Offensively, Poland could not get into a rhythm against Canton starter Marc Nofer (8-1).
Failed to capitalize
Nofer, who pitched well against Canfield in the district final last week on only two days' rest, pitched a complete game Friday, allowing only three runs on three hits. Poland's last two runs came in the fifth and sixth innings, but the Bulldogs had the bases loaded on more than one occasion and failed to capitalize.
"Nofer is a really good pitcher," Habuda said. "I think some of us were intimidated at the plate."
Nofer did have control problems at times. In the bottom of the sixth, he walked three Poland batters to load the bases. But the Bulldogs only scored one run thanks to a Chris Aracich sacrifice fly.
"Our hitting was very untimely today," Rohan said. "You can't do that in the regional semifinal game against a 29-1 team like Canton Central Catholic. At this point, every team still in it is good."