Ursuline wins, 10-0, for district crown

The Irish (20-4) haven’t been scored on in three tournament games.

By JOHN BASSETTI

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

STRUTHERS — The good news for Girard High is that its baseball program is back.

The bad news is that Ursuline High is back in the regional for a second straight year.

Ursuline’s 10-0 win over the Indians (17-7) vaulted the Irish (20-4) into the Division III regional.

“I don’t have many complaints right now,” Ursuline coach Sean Durkin said. “Our pitchers are doing a great job — we haven’t given up a run in the tournament yet. Offensively, we’re putting pressure on people every inning and I think our base running has added to that, too. We’re happy but we’ve got to keep building on that to win at the next level.”

Top hitter

Ed Rohan had two triples and a double for five RBIs for Ursuline, which had a 3-0 lead after one inning, then 7-0 after two.

Sophomore Shawn Roman (6-1) tossed a one-hitter for the Irish, who play Woodridge in a regional semifinal at Massillon High School next Thursday at 5 p.m.

“These guys have set a much higher standard for Girard baseball,” first-year coach Jason Johnson said. “My three seniors — Dave Sherock, R.J. Trimbur and Joe Tait — have taken leadership roles.

“These guys bring something different; that’s why we were 17-6 coming here. Hopefully, we can expect to come back. Ursuline puts a great product on the field. Hopefully, it shows where I’d like to take our program and where we need to be in the future.”

Larry Goist had Girard’s lone hit, a single in the first inning.

Roman said the ball hit by Goist was a fastball.

“It hung over the middle of the plate and he had a good hit on it.”

Roman, who had five strikeouts, said the players behind him are his cushion.

“It’s easy to pitch when you have a good defense backing you up. I felt good, but struggled throwing strikes. But towards the end of the game, I started hitting my spots a little better.”

More comfortable

He said returning to the regional feels more comfortable than last year, when the Irish lost in the Div. III state semifinals.

“I was a little nervous as a freshman,” said Roman, who pitched that game in Columbus. “I hope we could get back there again and do a little better.”

In three tournament games, Ursuline hasn’t given up a run.

“A big part of that is them,” Durkin said of Roman and Robert Switka. “But we haven’t made many errors. We’ve made all the routine plays, defensively, plus a couple great ones.”

Against Girard, Roman adapted with his pitches.

“He tends to throw a lot of breaking stuff; today, he didn’t,” Durkin said. “They [Girard] were having a hard time catching up with his fastball and he adjusted accordingly to it. He’s a very smart kid and I think that’s a big benefit when he’s on the mound.”

The last time Girard reached a district final was 2002 and Johnson said it was the early 1990s when the Indians last won a district.

Turnaround time

“It’s been a couple years since we’ve gotten to this point. Before we left the school today, we looked on the board. It was 1991 or 1992 when we won the district title.”

Girard has a makeup game against Hubbard.

“I told our kids that it’s been a long time since we won 10 games in the TAC. At 9-4, we’ve got a shot to still do that. It’s been a long time since we were 10 games over .500. If we win, we go 11 games over .500. I love my guys. They battle for me day-in and day-out and they have no reason to hang their heads.”

bassetti@vindy.com