Boardman wins battle of titans

By Ryan Jones

CANFIELD — Even though the Boardman High softball team has put together a commendable regular season campaign, coach Mike Trell and his staff are challenging their youthful roster to achieve more.

With a 5-1 victory against Canfield in a non-conference game Monday the Spartans improved to 12-3.

“This was a step,” Trell said. “But I know it’s not exactly where we want to be. We are trying to prepare for the [Division I] tournament next week and even though we won … we made a few mental and physical errors in the last few innings.”

Boardman’s Alex DiDomenico stifled Canfield’s hitters for most of the game. The sophomore allowed one run on four hits, struck out 12 and walked none. She struck out the first seven batters and didn’t surrender a hit until the sixth inning.

“Alex has been our workhorse all year,” Trell said about his right-handed ace. “We’ve called on her all year and she’s kept us in every game. Our three losses this year are by scores of 2-1, 1-0 and 4-0. We could be 15-0 and that’s the reason we are pushing the girls as much as we are.”

Canfield coach Ronie Haurin said her team lacked bat speed in the first few innings.

“Our swings weren’t as quick as they needed to at the beginning of the game,” she said. “We made some adjustments and shortened up our swings and that’s when we started to hit the ball. If we would have gotten started earlier in the game it might have had a different outcome.”

With the score 0-0 heading into the sixth frame, DiDomenico took the first offering she received from Canfield’s Carlee Hart and lifted it over the left-field fence.

The Spartans scored two more in the sixth to make the score 3-0 when Julie Olbrych hit a two-run single to left.

Boardman scored two runs in the seventh without a hit as the Cardinals defense committed three errors. Brooke Meenachan, who reached on an error, scored on Canfield’s second miscue and Boardman’s second run came home on the third error of the inning.

“Those fielding errors really hurt us,” Haurin said. “Before that it was a three-run game. Even though Carlee gave up some runs, I think our pitchers are doing a great job this year. They [Hart and Sarah Vrabel, who pitched the seventh inning] really compliment each other.”

Canfield (11-10) erased DiDomenico’s shutout bid in the last inning. Melanie West doubled to deep center field and scored when Hart flared a single to right to make the score 5-1.

The Cardinals had runners on second and third after Gina Mancini doubled, but DiDomenico induced a groundout to end the game.

“We have played a rough schedule this year,” Haurin said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy—especially after last season’s state-winning team — but it’s been a great experience for the kids. Our 11 wins are not indicative of how well we’ve played this year.”

Canfield has a matchup with conference implications against All-American Conference Red Tier rival Poland on Thursday, which is also undefeated in conference play.

“The conference will be at stake, and it’s always our goal to win that,” Haurin said. “But all of these regular season games are practices for the tournament. It’s been a rough road, but hopefully we’ll be prepared.”