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Ursuline falls to Grand Valley in Division III
By John Bassetti
Struthers
A four-run explosion in the fifth inning carried Grand Valley past Ursuline, 5-3, in a Division III district semifinal baseball game at Cene Park on Thursday.
It pushed the Mustangs into their first distrtict championship game since 1994.
Mitchell Lake’s two-run double scored Robby Slusher and Curtis Housel with Grand Valley’s first runs, before Lake and A.J. Henson tallied on R.J. Riley’s triple.
“We haven’t been past the sectional finals until this year,” said Grand Valley coach Russ Bell. “We won first-round sectional games five years in a row. That’s when I said, ‘OK, it’s about time we start taking that next step. Then we discussed the realization that we’re here and have to play to win and play like we belong.”
Adam Moodt (5-1) got the win, although Slusher relieved him in the sixth after Anthony Rohan’s double and consecutive singles by Jeff Podolsky and Dave Rossi put Ursuline in position to do damage. Rohan and Podolsky later scored on Harrison Finelli’s groundout. Podolsky scored on Paul Kempe’s grounder.
“Once we got a couple guys aboard, he [Sam Donko] made a mistake in the middle of the plate and we put a good swing on it,” Bell said of Lake’s hit that knocked in two runs. “Once we broke through with that first big hit, then I think it loosened our other guys up a bit, which allowed us to take a little more relaxed approach at the plate.”
Lake’s two-out hit allowed Grand Valley to relax because it gave them a 2-1 lead.
“It’s obviously a key time when you put runs on the board to make sure you leave them with a zero the next inning — make sure you don’t give them any momentum back,” Bell said of Grand Valley’s defense following Ursuline’s at-bat in the bottom half of the fifth.
The Mustangs got their final run in the sixth, but that’s also when the Irish had their most offensively productive inning with two runs.
Ursuline Sean Durkin said the game was progressing well until the fifth.
“I thought Sam [Donko] was doing a terrific job on the mound and had them off-balance, but we allowed the leadoff runner on too many times and we dodged trouble a couple times. But, in that inning, they came up with a huge two-out hit and that was the ball game.
“I thought we had a lot of opportunities to score, but just didn’t hit the ball hard all day. The pitcher [Moodt] did a great job keeping us off balance.”
A couple of shortstop errors hurt the Irish, too.
“Yeah, we kicked it a little bit here and there and misplayed a couple balls. That’s why we’ve been winning in the tournament is because we haven’t been doing that. Today wasn’t a great day for us at the plate or with the gloves, but we’re proud of how much better we got since the beginning of the year.”
First baseman Dominic Gore was injured stretching for a throw in an attempt to put out a runner.
“He made a great effort to make a great play, then, obviously, was in a lot of pain,” said Durkin.