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Second, but no regrets
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Springfield’s Cody Pitzo watches Newark Catholic celebrate its 2-1 win over the Tigers in the Division IV state baseball championship Sunday at Huntington Park in Columbus.
Tigers scare topnotch program
By Joe Scalzo
Colubmus
The Springfield High baseball team didn’t leave Columbus with gold medals on Sunday.
It didn’t leave with any regrets, either.
Playing against the most storied Division IV program in Ohio, the Tigers took Newark Catholic to the brink before falling 2-1 in the state championship game at Huntington Park.
“I said we had to play a flawless game and we did,” Springfield coach Matt Weymer said. “They just beat us. That’s baseball.”
Springfield had a chance to tie the game with two outs in the top of the seventh when senior Cody Pitzo — the only remaining starter from the Tigers’ 2011 state runner-up team — came to the plate with JoJo Caraballo on third base.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better situation,” Weymer said.
But like he did all game, Newark Catholic ace Mitch Cox found a way to escape trouble, getting Pitzo to pop out to first base on his 107th — and final — pitch.
“I told Cody I’d take him with a guy on third base with two outs in the state championship game any day of the week,” Weymer said. “He made a good pitch and he [Pitzo] made the out. That’s the way it goes sometimes.”
It was the seventh state title for the Green Wave (24-10) — second-most in Ohio history — and their first since 2006. The Tigers (21-8) have finished second four times, including three times in the last five years.
“To go 2-1 in the state championship game on a day like this on a field like this, you can’t ask for more,” said second baseman Eoghan Bees, one of five seniors. “The only thing you could ask for is to come out on top but sometimes that doesn’t happen.
“To have gotten this far, it’s still a successful season. Just not as successful as we would have liked.”
Sunday’s game was the closest of Springfield’s four title games, with the Tigers putting runners on base in six of the seven innings. But they stranded eight of them, failing to put Cox away when they had the chance early.
Springfield took a 1-0 lead in the first inning thanks to four straight one-out singles, the last by Hunter Snyder to score Ryan Kohler.
But Cox then got Dalton Donachie to fly out to right field before striking out Dom Gentsy.
Two innings later, Kohler led off with a single to left that the outfielder misplayed, allowing him to reach third with Springfield’s 3-4-5 hitters coming up. But Pitzo and Joe Wrask struck out and Snyder grounded to short to end the threat.
“When he [Cox] needed to be good, he was good,” Weymer said.
Springfield’s pitchers nearly matched him, with sophomore Jordon Peterson going 32/3 innings and junior James Hillyer finishing it out.
Peterson left with the game tied and a Newark Catholic runner on second. Hillyer got ahead 1-2 on the Green Wave’s No. 9 hitter, David Meurer, but made a mistake that Meurer drove into the gap to make it 2-1.
Hillyer faced the minimum over his last seven batters but the Tigers couldn’t get the run they needed, even with runners on first and second in the sixth.
“I know it sucks being the runner-up when you get here and play this way, but you can’t be anything but proud of them,” Weymer said. “The message will be this was another great season at Springfield. We just have to keep working and hopefully we’ll come back here and maybe one day bring home one of these gold ones instead of silver.”