Cardinals knock off Canton South

By ANDY TODOR

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

HUDSON — Canfield High pitcher Drew Turocy admitted it wasn’t his best day on the mound, but it was good enough to get the Cardinals one step closer to Columbus.

Turocy out-dueled Canton South’s Justin Gill Thursday in a Division II baseball regional semifinal, leading the Cardinals to a 4-2 victory and a date with defending regional champion Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin today at 2 p.m.

“I’ll admit, I felt better at times,” said Turocy. “Not as good as last week. I didn’t feel as good coming in, but I was able to make the pitches when I had to.”

Best inning

Turocy’s best inning may have been the sixth, when with runners on first and second and one out and the score tied 2-2, he induced Lucas Murray to foul out then struck out Lonnel Bush.

“I’m not sure if [Turocy] had his best stuff today,” said Canfield (27-3) coach Matt Koenig. “He didn’t seem to have the pop he normally does. Don’t get me wrong, South is a very good offensive team.”

Canfield got to Gill in the third inning. Tom Cheslik led off with a single, and an errant throw and a sacrifice bunt moved him to third with one out. Mark Carrocce hit what seemed to be a sacrifice fly to center but the ball glanced off the glove of South’s Devon Torrence to score Cheslik. Mike Hoelzel then singled to drive in Carrocce to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.

South (22-8) answered in the top of the fourth when Dan Hoffman singled and went to second on a sacrifice by Gill. Designated hitter Matt Trissel followed with an RBI single but Turocy was able to shut down the rally with men on second and third.

Ohio State-bound

The Wildcats tied the score in the fifth when Torrence, who will play football at Ohio State, hit a 2-1 pitch into the right-center gap for a triple and came on when the cutoff throw got away.

Again, Turocy settled down and got a double play to end the inning.

“Defense came up huge. I couldn’t ask for a better defense,” said Turocy. “We only need a couple runs to win, our defense plays solid and that’s all we need.”

Canfield regained the lead in the bottom of the sixth and it was Turocy igniting it. He led off with a stand-up double to right. Sophomore Dan Banna followed with a single, moving Turocy to third. Catcher D.J. Haurin hit a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Turocy to give the Cardinals a 3-2 lead. Banna eventually made his way to third and scored on John Pitzulo’s sacrifice fly.

Turocy was able to retire the first two batters in the seventh inning, and with one on, he struck out Hoffman on a 3-2 count with his 118th pitch to end the game.

Two good pitchers

“When you get two pitchers on the mound like that, and you know it’s not going to be a high-scoring game at all, you have to have good defense, have to be able to bunt them over, have to have good baserunning, stuff like that,” said Koenig.

Koenig also praised his defense, which made some mistakes that didn’t hurt them in the long run.

“Everytime we made a mistake, we got it right back with a very good play,” he said. “Defensively, I’m very happy with these guys.”

Canfield kept battling throughout the whole game, and that didn’t go unnoticed by their coach.

“Each guy’s able to pick each other up, and that’s a remarkably good team when they’re able to do that,” said Koenig.