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Carlozzi carries light-hitting Poland over Ursuline
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Poland’s Pat Carlozzi pitched the Bulldogs to a 3-1 win over the Ursuline Irish on Thursday at Cene Park in Struthers.
Carlozzi carries light-hitting
Poland over Ursuline at Cene
By Ryan Buck
Struthers
Poland senior baseball standout Pat Carlozzi has had a pretty solid week.
He signed a letter-of-intent to play baseball at Ashland University, helped the surging Bulldogs win four games in a row and led them in essentially every way possible in their most recent triumph.
Carlozzi allowed just three hits over six innings, scored an important third run and made the defensive play of the game in Poland’s 3-1 victory over Ursuline on Thursday at Cene Park.
“It was a good performance all around,” Carlozzi said.
The Bulldogs got on the board early as back-to-back doubles by Chase Knodle and Marty Malenic to lead off the game brought Knodle home for a 1-0 lead.
Carlozzi, an All-American Conference all-league winner last season, took it from there.
He struck out eight batters in six innings of work, struck out the side in the fourth, walked one and carried a no-hitter into the fifth.
“I was throwing first-pitch strikes a lot,” he said, “and that’s a big key. The curveball was working nicely, a cutter — all my pitches — [and] a changeup.”
Irish coach Sean Durkin, who led his team to a Division III state semifinal last season, could only watch as Carlozzi controlled an Ursuline lineup struggling to find consistency.
“He’s a nice pitcher,” Durkin said. “He’s one of Poland’s top pitchers and they’re a heck of a program. We’re in a place right now where we’re struggling to do anything offensively.”
Poland padded the lead in the sixth. With two outs, Ricky Svetlak walked and advanced on a wild pitch before Carlozzi singled. Svetlak then came home on a wild pitch from Irish starter Vinnie Lucente.
Carlozzi made his way to third after Corey Svatosky walked. Svatosky strolled toward second during Sonny Lipari’s subsequent at-bat, hoping to force a throw to second which would score Carlozzi.
It did. Carlozzi sprinted home for the Bulldogs’ third run of the game as Svatosky even managed to steal second in the Irish’s failed run-down.
Manufactured runs, on top of strong pitching, have been Poland’s modus operandi through its winning streak.
“We haven’t hit it in four games now,” said Bulldogs coach Rich Murray, “and we’ve won all four games this week with a total of ... six runs. Our pitching’s been carrying us. We need to get our bats going.”
Ursuline got to Carlozzi in the sixth as Vito Petrillo doubled and later scored on Dion Felger’s two-out single.
In the seventh, with Jared Burket having replaced Carlozzi, Bobby Dulay singled to lead off the inning and advanced to second on a balk.
Two pitches later, Logan Pullin’s fly ball to right fell into the waiting glove of Carlozzi. Dulay, without hesitation, broke for third, but was never close to beating Carlozzi’s strike from right on the momentum-killing double play.
“As soon as it was hit to me, I knew, ‘I’m gonna try and throw this kid out,’” Carlozzi said. “I caught it nicely, made a nice throw and got ‘em out.”
Lucente and Felger combined to allow only five Poland hits.