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Canfield falls, but advances to regional semifinals
By Ron Clements
INDIANAPOLIS
Thursday will be a new day for Canfield’s 11-12 Little League baseball team.
Tuesday is a day Canfield players would like to forget after Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West, the Illinois state champs, pummeled Canfield, 15-4, on the final day of pool play at the Great Lakes Regional at Stokely Field.
“Illinois put on one heckuva hitting display,” Canfield manager George Beck said. “If we have any hope of beating them, we have to be stellar on the mound and stellar in the field as well.”
Canfield will try to put the lopsided loss in the rearview mirror when the team faces Illinois again in Thursday’s Great Lakes semifinal that will be televised on ESPN.
The winners of Thursday’s semifinals will play Saturday, with the regional champ advancing to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.
“Everybody starts back with a clean slate,” Beck said. “They could’ve beat us 50-4 or 3-2, it makes no difference. Everybody’s back to square one and back to even.
“We’ll get at it Thursday and hopefully we play a little bit better.”
Canfield produced the game’s first hit when Ethan Fletcher smacked a two-out double down the left-field line in the first inning. He did not score, an omen of things to come for Canfield.
Illinois scored twice in the bottom of the first when Brandon Green ripped the ball down the third-base line. Canfield’s McCoy Watkins stopped it to prevent a double, but his throw was not in time, allowing Pierce Jones score from third.
Green then scored on an Eddie King double for a 2-0 lead.
Canfield tied the game in the second inning. Jake Kowal, Canfield’s starting pitcher, and Cole Rothbauer both singled with one out. Canfield loaded the bases on Walt Sweeney’s infield single to the right side.
Cole Morell’s RBI single to left was Canfield’s fourth consecutive hit. Two batters later, Seth Velker’s seeing-eye single past West shortstop Ed Howard scored Rothbauer to tie the game.
But Illinois retook the lead in the bottom of the second inning on a two-run homer to right by Jones. That’s when the wheels came off for Canfield as Illinois sent 14 batters to the plate, hitting six home runs and scoring 11 times.
Trey Hondras followed Jones’ homer with a line-drive solo shot over the left-field fence to give Illinois a 5-2 lead.
Jones added a three-run homer later in the inning and Hondras also hit two.
“We had a plan going in,” Beck said. “We already knew that we were going to be in the top four, so we experimented with some pitching and our experiment didn’t work out so well.”
Canfield got a run back in the top of the third when Richie Hofus followed a Watkins double with an RBI single.
But Illinois added two more in the bottom of the third to create a cushion.
Canfield tried its best to avoid the 10-run rule. Brandon Mikos led off the fourth with a double to left. Dominic Pilolli reached on an infield single and Velker walked to load the bases before Ethan Fletcher’s sacrifice fly scored Mikos.
Brayden Beck walked to again load the bases, but Green struck out the next two batters to end the game.
“I’ve got a humble group of kids and they love the game of baseball,” said Illinois manager Darold Butler, whose team lost in last year’s regional final. “They know what’s at stake and they know that each and every game counts and it doesn’t make sense to take any plays off from here on out. They’ll come in focused [on Thursday].”