Win grin: Canfield clinches MAC title

By Tom Williams

The experienced Cardinals held off their rivals, 5-4.

POLAND — It’s hard to imagine a teenager who smiles more than Canfield High junior pitcher Jared Turocy.

With the Metro Athletic Conference crown at stake, Canfield coaches Matt Koenig and Brian Finnigan lifted Turocy with Poland’s potential winning run on base in the seventh inning. Turocy reacted by flashing a grin at his mentors as he changed gloves.

It doesn’t hurt when your support includes 10 members of last year’s Division II state championship team.

Catcher Jake Kucek took over on the mound and induced a groundball out to preserve Canfield’s 5-4 victory that gave the Cardinals (19-2, 11-0) their second straight league crown in the final MAC season.

“It’s something I always do,” said Turocy (5-0) of smiling. “I do it the most on the mound because I don’t like to let things bother me. We had a little shaky defense at the beginning but I was smiling because I knew our bats would come through for us.”

Turocy’s hit in the fifth inning sparked Canfield’s two-run rally that tied the score at 3. Mark Carrocce tripled into the right-field corner to score Turocy then came home on Dan Banna’s hit.

In the seventh inning, Carrocce and Banna singled and scored on Tom Cheslik’s double.

“In my first three at-bats, I hit the ball hard,” said Cheslik of his 0-for-3 start. “So it felt good when that ball went [through] for a double.”

Poland starter Jason Simons (2-1) went 6 1/3 innings before Ryan Rovnak retired the final two Cardinals.

“This feels so good because both of my [varsity] years we haven’t lost in the MAC,” Cheslik said. “Hopefully, we can finish that on Wednesday [against Howland].”

Turocy retired the Bulldogs’ first two batters in the seventh inning. Matt Pitzulo homered to center field and Drew Petro and Kevin Koval kept the Poland (9-6, 6-2) rally going with base hits before Kucek took the mound.

“I know that Poland is sick and tired of seeing a Turocy in the lineup,” said Koenig. “He has certainly learned from the best, there’s no doubt about it,” said Koenig, referring to Jared’s older brothers Frank and Drew who pitch for the University of Akron. “They’ve obviously passed the torch to him.

“We went with him as long as we could,” Koenig said. “He had two strikes on each of the last three hitters, but he just couldn’t get it done.”

Koenig has no trouble turning the ball over to Kucek.

“That was a very similar situation as the state title game,” Koenig said, recalling how Kucek pitched well until Drew Turocy came for the final three outs. “It was tight but [Kucek] was able to come through.”

The Cardinals overcame three errors that led to two unearned runs and Poland’s 3-1 lead in the third inning.

Koval’s two-out single in the first scored Mark Turnbull for a 1-0 lead.

Petro’s RBI double scored Trent Vallinger with Poland’s second run. An error allowed Petro to score.

“We did score on [Turocy] this time and that was nice,” Poland coach Rich Murray said. “He’s a great pitcher, he’s got a great curveball. If we hit him, we’re OK. We’ve got to limit the strikeouts.”

Koenig was pleased with how the Cards rebounded.

“We made three errors in the field and looked ugly doing it, but in clutch situations we were able to produce,” Koenig said. “Having 10 returning starters is absolutely huge.”

Standing in the outfield for the final out was no problem for Turocy.

“I don’t let things get to me,” Turocy said. “Baseball is a game and people love to play it. I’m just having fun out there.”

williams@vindy.com