State-bound -- again

By TOM WILLIAMS
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
MASSILLON -- It's not hard to pinpoint just how dominant the Ursuline High baseball team was in Sunday's Division III regional final against Burton Berkshire.
For instance, freshman pitcher Shawn Roman tossed four innings of no-hit ball against the Badgers (26-4). He finished with a two-hit shutout.
The Irish (23-5) defense turned double plays in three consecutive innings to erase any hopes the Badgers had of getting back into the game.
But the stroke that put the exclamation point on Ursuline's 9-0 triumph was Todd Finn's third-inning homer that cleared the Schroeder Field fence and landed inside Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.
Finn's two-run homer put the Irish ahead 5-0, knocked the stuffing out of the Badgers' Columbus dreams and helped seal Ursuline's fourth state tournament appearance since 2000.
Up next
Saturday at 3 p.m., Ursuline will play the winner of today's Elida Regional final at Cooper Stadium in Columbus. Canton Central Catholic (24-3) will play Hamler Patrick Henry (26-2) or Elmore Woodmore (16-10).
"It feels great -- it means a lot, especially knowing that only four teams get to go," said junior right fielder Matt Yarab whose three hits included two doubles. "We're happy to go but we certainly don't want to just go down there. We want to win."
Against the Badgers, there was little doubt which team was in command from the start. Senior David Patrick drilled the second pitch of the game by Berkshire sophomore Mike Smetana up the middle for a base hit.
With two outs, Eddie Rohan hit the ball sharply off third baseman Ben Hess' glove for a single and he scored Ursuline's first run on Yarab's double to center field.
Mark Lapikas tripled to lead off the second inning and scored on Roman's groundout. Ross Revella hit the first of his two doubles and scored on Joe Wielbruda's base hit for a 3-0 lead.
Blanked
The Badgers were able to runners on base in each of the first five innings, but never came close to scoring.
Roman (4-1) wasn't perfect as he struggled with control problems, walking seven Badgers over the first four innings.
"I didn't locate my fastball as well as I usually do," Roman said. "I think the mound screwed me up a little bit. I just try to pound the strike zone as much as I can."
Roman said he wasn't aware that the Badgers had no hits until his teammates told him in the fourth inning.
Bryan Lane's one-out single to left field broke up the no-hitter in the fifth inning. Oliver Tiber singled in the sixth inning for the Badgers' only other hit.
"We brought him along kid of slowly and by tournament time we thought he was ready to step into that number two role," Ursuline coach Sean Durkin said. "He's done a great job with it."
Durkin will be taking his second varsity team to state competition in three months. The coach of Ursuline's girls basketball team, Durkin coached the Irish girls to the Div. III state championship game.
Columbus is becoming quite familiar to Durkin teams. His 2004 girls basketball squad won the state title as did his 2000 baseball team.
Ursuline's 2001 baseball team finished state runner-up and the 2003 unit lost in the state semifinals.
"This last three months have been pretty much a whirlwind," Durkin said.
The Irish chased Badgers starter Smetana in the third inning after producing 10 hits, half of them good for extra bases.
Craig Barstow relieved him and Ursuline's other four runs were unearned.
"It's seems as though we were hitting the gaps, running the bases aggressively," Durkin said. "That's the way we've been playing all year."
Roman said the cushion helped him relax.
"They've scored so many runs this year," Roman said. "We have a lot of good senior leadership and we just crushed the ball all season."
williams@vindy.com