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Hoelzel handcuffs Hubbard
By Joe Scalzo
STRUTHERS
Photo
Nick Benson (7) safely reaches second base after Hubbard's Mike Lopuchorsky(6) bobbles the ball during the second inning of a Division II District Semi Finals Game at Cene Field on Wednesday evening.
The first time the Hubbard High baseball team faced Canfield senior Joe Hoelzel, he only showed glimpses of his potential.
The second time, the Eagles weren’t so lucky.
Hoelzel pitched a three-hitter to help the Cardinals avenge an opening-day loss to Hubbard, beating the Eagles 11-4 in Wednesday’s Division I district semifinal at Cene Park.
“He didn’t have his best stuff the first time we played them,” said Canfield coach Matt Koenig, referring to a 4-2 loss. “Tonight, you saw what he was capable of.”
Hoelzel (3-2) carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning and finished with 11 strikeouts. Two of the three hits he surrendered were infield hits and the Wright State recruit didn’t allow a ball out of the infield until the sixth inning.
The victory snapped Hubbard’s 17-game win streak and propelled the Cardinals into tonight’s district final against West Branch.
“He’s the best pitcher we faced all season,” said Eagles coach Brian Bosheff. “He’s ridiculously good.”
Hoelzel, a key starter on Canfield’s basketball team, got a late start to the baseball season and didn’t have a terrific fastball until the first week of May, Koenig said.
Still, Koenig didn’t hesitate to start him against the best teams on his schedule, knowing that experience would pay dividends during tournament time.
“He’s definitely battle-tested,” Koenig said. “There’s no doubt about that.”
Kyle Vaclav had three hits and scored two runs for Canfield (19-7-1), which advanced to three straight Division II district finals from 2005-07 under Koenig but was eliminated early in Division I competition the past two years.
“West Branch is a really good team,” Koenig said. “They had to go through Mooney and Poland to get here, so they have to be.
“We’re not very familiar with them and they’re not very familiar with us so it’ll be an interesting tilt [today].”
Justen Vrabel singled, walked twice, was hit by a pitch and scored twice as the Cardinals did their damage through walks and singles. It was a rare bad outing for Hubbard ace Matt Shelton (6-1), who gave up six runs on eight hits in 42/3 innings. He also walked four and hit two Cardinals.
Shelton entered the game with a 0.78 ERA with just five walks in 45 innings.
“It’s just one of those things,” said Bosheff. “You don’t see many major leaguers go undefeated for an entire year and unfortunately he had his worst outing in our tournament game.
“It had to be a low-scoring game for us to win and it wasn’t. We got handled pretty good today. It wasn’t what we envisioned.”