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Poland’s Carlozzi no-hits W. Branch
By CURTIS PULLIAM
Struthers
All Pat Carlozzi did was stick to the game plan.
Poland’s senior right-hander threw strikes and ended up with a no-hitter in a 4-0 win over West Branch in a Division II disrict semifinal Tuesday at Bob Cene Park.
Carlozzi, a captain for the Bulldogs, said the key was to attack the hitters.
“First-pitch strikes,” said Carlozzi, who had all his pitches working, especially his curveball. “It’s one of my main go-to pitches.”
Carlozzi struck out seven to lead the Bulldogs (18-5) into today’s district final against Cardinal Mooney.
“I told them when I got out there I think that was the most dominant pitching performance I’ve seen in the 11 years I’ve been here,” said Poland head coach Rich Murray. “He threw his curveball for a strike almost every time. He walked a couple guys, but he must have been 75 percent at least.”
West Branch head coach Shawn Alazaus was equally impressed.
“He just had great command and kept us off-balance and we weren’t able to get to him” Alazaus said. “Offensively, same thing we’ve been doing all year — you just try to go up there and have a plan and try to get a fastball in a fastball count, which he didn’t allow us to do today.”
Carlozzi walked four and hit a batter.
While he was busy mowing down hitters, fellow captain Sonny Lipari was providing the spark offensively for the Bulldogs. Lipari went 3 for 3 with a walk and a run scored. His biggest hit came in the second inning, when Lipari lined a 3-2 pitch from West Branch pitcher Jeff Vizzuso into left field, bringing home two runs to give Poland a 2-0 lead. Lipari also came up big defensively in the fifth inning, as he made a tough play on a hard ground ball to preserve the no-hitter for Carlozzi.
“He really stepped it up today,” Murray said. “We know he can do it, he’s been in the two hole the whole year. He struggled a little bit, but today his bat came alive and hit line drives.”
Poland added to its lead in the fourth inning with an unearned run and an RBI double by catcher and cleanup hitter Ricky Svetlak to make it 4-0.
That was plenty of enough offense for Carlozzi, who offensively, reached base on an intentional walk as well.
Dom Lipari added two hits for the Bulldogs, who scored most of their runs with two outs.
“We’ve been preaching that all year — timely hitting,” Murray said. “We’re getting a lot better at it. We struggled hitting early in the year. But if we come focused like we did today, we can hit the ball.”
Vizzuso worked 32/3 innings and allowed six hits, four runs (one earned) and four walks. He struck out two for the Warriors (14-10).
“My kids gave great effort,” Alazaus said. “They battled and played hard for seven innings. It’s just baseball, it’s one of them things. You run into a kid who’s really hot on that given day, and unfortunately it was a tournament game.”
West Branch will play a re-scheduled regular-season game against Louisville on Thursday.
As for Carlozzi, this performance was more meaningful than the first no-hitter.
“Yeah, just a little bit,” he said.
Poland and Cardinal Mooney will meet at 6:30 tonight at Cene Park.