Canfield wins baseball district in Division II
By pete mollica
Struthers
Canfield junior Anthony Ross might only stand 5-foot-5 with his cleats on, but Friday night he was the biggest guy on the field.
Ross hit an infield single off the bare hand of Ravenna pitcher Dillon Gillespie with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning that drove in Mike Wittmann with the run that broke a tie and propelled the Cardinals to a 5-4 victory in the Division II district baseball championship at Cene Park.
The win advanced the Cardinals (15-8) into the Hudson regional where they will play Thursday at 5 p.m.
“I think that every player dreams about coming up in a situation like that one with the game on the line and then to make that dream come true is just unbelievable,” said Ross, who finished the game with two hits and two RBIs.
“But it certainly wasn’t all about me,” he added. “Mike Wittmann got the lead off single and we advanced him to third where I was able to drive him in. It’s been a total team effort all season long for us.”
Canfield coach Matt Koenig was very impressed with his team’s effort.
“They just battled the entire way,” he said. “We’ve had two very tight ball games the last two nights and the kids just kept on battling the whole way. We had a couple of lapses both games, but they just hung in there and pulled out the wins.
“Anthony plays a lot bigger than he is,” Koenig added. “He’s got a big heart and he’s been a leader for this team all season long.”
The Cardinals also got some strong pitching, first by starter Jared Bettura, who pitched five innings before getting into trouble in the sixth when the Ravens (14-6) tied the contest.
Reliever Tylor Rhoads came on and struggled a bit in the sixth, but in the seventh inning he struck out the side.
Ravenna got on the board in the opening inning when Kyle Gillespie walked and he scored later on Brandon Holt’s single.
Canfield scored four runs on four hits in the second inning. Ross drove in one run with a single and Ben Angelo doubled home another. He scored on a Ravenna error and Brock McGivern singled in the final run.
Bettura retiring 12 straight batters before giving up a walk in the fifth. He started the sixth giving up a double to Lee Lovejoy and with one out walked Andy Skilton before Rhoads came on in relief.
Rhoads allowed a double to Ray Pittman, scoring one run, then uncorked a wild pitch for the second run and Jordan Baker then singled home the tying run.
Wittmann led off the sixth for the Cardinals with a single to left. He was sacrificed to second by Tim Cheslik and moved to third on a ground out as Ross came to the plate.