Poland edges Canfield, 7-6, in softball district final

May 24, 2014 at 12:10a.m.

Bulldogs prevail in ‘annual’

tournament showdown

By Curtis Pulliam

Alliance

The Battle of 224 added another chapter to its storied history as the Poland softball team defeated rival Canfield, 7-6, in eight innings Friday in a Division II district final at Alliance High School.

“That’s pure guts,” Bulldogs head coach Matt Campbell said. “That’s been their M.O. all year. We’ve been down several times throughout the season against good teams and we battled back. The kids never give up.”

Poland (21-8) will meet the winner of the Akron district in a regional semifinal at 5 p.m. on Wednesday at Firestone Stadium in Akron.

Poland and Canfield meet twice a year during the regular season in the All-American Conference, Red Division and the teams have met in the district final each of the last seven years. The Bulldogs and Cardinals are familiar with one another.

“The proximity of the two communities [and] they’re spitting images of one another,” Campbell said. “The people are similar, the players are similar, they live and breathe softball.”

The teams were tied at 6 in the top of the eighth inning when Poland junior Chloe Bush led off with a single. After a sacrifice bunt by Claire Testa, Chloe’s sister, Phoebe, tapped a little grounder in front of the mound and the Canfield infield couldn’t handle it. The throw went sailing over the first baseman’s head and Chloe scored on the error.

“Play hard and good things happen,” Campbell said. “She’s [Phoebe] struggled all year hitting, but I tell you what, she’s a fast girl, and there’s no one who works any harder than her. For her to beat that out, force a quick throw and take the next base, it was great.”

Bulldogs senior pitcher Taylor Miokovic, who came on in relief in the fourth, struck out Ally Sammarco to end the game in the bottom of the eighth and give Poland it’s first district title since 2012.

“It’s pretty cool because last year losing to them was a pretty bitter feeling,” Miokovic said. “It’s my senior and going into this I was telling myself we want to get back to Firestone.”

Poland (21-8) got off to a quick start as its first five batters reached base in the first inning against Allison Fabry. The Bulldogs scored three runs, highlighted by an RBI single from Brielle Nocera and an RBI double from Kathryn Wilson.

Kara Rothbauer contributed an RBI single got Canfield (21-6) on the board in the bottom of the first.

Chloe Bush’s run-scoring single and two-run triple from Testa gave Poland a 6-1 lead in the third. Canfield struck for four runs in bottom of the fourth against Kristyn Svetlak. An RBI single by Darby Cockrell and a two-run double by Fabry cut the deficit to 6-4. An RBI groundout got the Cardinals within a run, 6-5.

Rachel Tinkey’s RBI double tied the game at 6 in the bottom of the fourth.

Even with the loss, Cardinals head coach Ray Melewski was happy with his girls effort.

I couldn’t have been more proud of them,” Melewski said. “The whole year we come back and won games but this one we came up a run short.”