Wednesday, March 28, 2012
By Jim Flick
CORTLAND
The Canfield High boys baseball erupted for five runs in the first inning, and kept host Lakeview in check with strong pitching and defense to open its season with a 7-0 victory Tuesday.
Tony Mehle (1-0) pitched six strong innings for Canfield (1-0), striking out six while yielding a single walk. Mehle limited the Bulldogs to five hits.
Mehle pitched “a great game, a great opening day,” said Canfield coach Matt Koenig. “He did a heck of a job throwing strikes. We call him ‘the pitching machine’ because he throws strike after strike.”
Mehle said he felt “only normal opening day jitters” before the game.
“Not too much pressure,” he said.
Koenig said his team was eager and ready.
“These guys have been chomping at the bit for some time now and that showed in the first couple of innings,” he said. “Our guys were ready to play.”
Senior center fielder Ben Angelo walked to open the game, and scored the Cardinals’ first run on a passed ball.
Shortstop Joe Tuchek, a senior, knocked in two runs for Canfield in the first inning. Second baseman Michael Ross, a sophomore, smacked a single that brought home two more runs for Canfield, giving the Cardinals a 5-0 lead.
Tuchek boosted the lead to 6-0 in the second inning when he knocked in his third RBI.
“We had a good start,” Tuchek said. “We played great defense. We shut them out. That’s always a plus.
“In the first two innings, we looked real good,” Tuchek added. “If we can play like that for the entire course of the game, and keep putting up runs like that, we’ll be in real good shape for the rest of the year.”
Seniors Tyler Rhoads and Anthony Ross, and junior Derek Turocy each smacked a double for Canfield. Turocy’s seventh-inning two-bagger drove in the Cardinals’ final run.
While the offense scored early, Mehle, a senior, settled in and blanked Lakeview (1-1). Only once, in the sixth inning, did he give up more than one hit in an inning. But he struck out a Bulldogs batter and threw a pitch that a batter could only tag for a weak fly ball that ended the threat.
The game was marred by an injury to Lakeview first baseman A.J. Hrosovski. In a scramble at first base for that resulted in the out that ended the sixth inning, Hrosovski collided with Canfield’s Anthony Ross. Hrosovski was transported by ambulance to a local hospital, although coaches said the injuries were not serious.