Win not in the Cards: Canfield falls to Euclid

By Chuck Housteau

Last year’s Division II state champs couldn’t get going in the 9-2 loss.

STRUTHERS — Euclid High baseball coach T.J. Florkiewicz was almost apologetic following his team’s 9-2 win over Canfield in a Division I district semifinal game at Cene Park Wednesday.

“I told [Canfield’s coach Matt Koenig] they got us on the wrong day because we really played well,” said Florkiewicz. “We didn’t make any errors until the end of the game. We got on them early, we got timely hits and we did everything we wanted to do.”

The Panthers (14-11) will return to Cene Park today at 7 p.m to face Lakewood St. Edward for the district championship.

Canfield, which won the Div. II state championship last season, finished 24-4 and won the Metro Athletic Conference.

“It wasn’t a good night for us,” said Koenig. “We had a little trouble getting in front of guys, pitching-wise. It seemed like we were behind every hitter but honestly Jared [Turocy] didn’t pitch too bad.”

The Panthers collected 17 hits off Canfield’s ace Turocy (6-1) and reliever Andrew Zunic.

“It’s wasn’t like they were rocketing balls all over the ballpark,” said Koenig. “They had a lot of bloop hits and they were falling in.”

Euclid also played outstanding defense behind their starting pitcher Jeff Kotlar (6-2), who did a good job of throwing strikes and letting his teammates field the ball behind him.

Koenig said the Cardinals just couldn’t put the Panthers away in several innings.

“Every time it looked like Jared was going to get out of an inning, Euclid would find the key hit,” Koenig said. “One bloop hit here, another bloop hit there and they were crossing home plate.”

Euclid took the lead in the first inning on a two-run single by Lashon Long. The inning could have been worse if not for a nifty double play by Canfield.

In the second inning, Euclid tacked on two more runs on RBI singles by Elvin Williams and Sean Langham for a 4-0 lead.

“We put up two runs on them early and that put pressure on them,” said Florkiewicz. “Then we got two again and it kind of opened things up. [Canfield] didn’t give up or anything but it’s so hard when your down 4-0 against Jeff Kotlar.”

The Cardinals only had two hits, one by Turocy in the first and another by Nate Wilson in the third, until the sixth.

Euclid put the game away for the most part by tallying four runs in the fourth inning to open up an 8-0 lead.

Canfield scored twice in the sixth on a triple by John Manzoian, who scored on an RBI groundout and again after a single by Mark Carrocce and a couple of errors by Euclid.

“I’m so proud of what our senior class has accomplished the last two years,” Koenig said. “After winning a state championship to come back and have a season like this.

“We would have liked to gone deeper in the tournament but we accomplished a lot this season.”