Canfield 9-10 baseball faces familiar foe at state

Staff report

HAMILTON

For most of the little league district tournament, Canfield’s 9-10-year-old baseball team didn’t live up to its potential at the plate.

That wasn’t a problem in Sunday’s state tournament game.

Canfield rolled up 14 hits in just three innings to beat Mount Vernon 20-2 in its opening game, setting up a quarterfinal matchup tonight with a familiar foe: Hamilton West Side.

Canfield manager George Beck has faced Hamilton five times over the past three years as he coached his son Brayden from 9-10 to 11-12. Canfield went 3-2 in those meetings.

“They’re a very, very good program,” Beck said. “They’ve been to the Little League World Series and they have a great tradition. Hopefully we’re starting to establish a little rivalry.”

The teams will meet at 8:30 p.m. today with the winner moving on to meet either Lucasville or Olentangy on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

Canfield had a first-round bye in the tournament, then drubbed a Mount Vernon team that had won its opener 15-1 over Bellevue.

Ben Slanker doubled, tripled and scored four runs and Luca Ricchiuti singled, doubled and scored four times for Canfield. Broc Lowry added two doubles and Jameson Beck had two singles in the 31/2-inning game. Slanker (21/3 innings), Beck (two-thirds of an inning) and Connor Miller (one inning) combined on a one-hitter.

“I thought the [Mount Vernon] pitchers threw pretty decent; we just came out and swung the bats pretty well,” Beck said. “Through districts we didn’t hit the ball up to our potential, so hopefully we were saving it for Hamilton and the state tournament.”

9-10 softball

CUYAHOGA FALLS

The Poland 9-10 softball team was eliminated from the state tournament on Monday night with a 3-1 loss to Wheelersburg.

Poland lost to Tallmadge 4-0 on Sunday to fall into the losers bracket after beating Ashtabula 25-1 in Saturday’s opening round.

10-11 BASEBALL

ASHTABULA

The Canfield 10-11 baseball team will meet New Albany in a winners bracket quarterfinal of the Little League state tournament. Canfield is coming off an 11-1 win over Galion on Saturday.

Colt Zone (Age 15)

GREENSBORO, N.C.

Roth Brothers went 1-2 in the Colt Zone championship at Stoner-White Field.

In Saturday’s opener, Tim Sumner scored Roth’s only run in an 11-1 loss to Greensboro-White, which scored eight runs in the fifth inning to break the game open. Roth managed just two hits.

In the second game, Roth defeated Greensboro-Green 3-2. Danny Joyce and Donald Drummond combined on a six-hitter for Roth, which had five hits.

Sunday, Roth gave up five runs in the first inning before falling 18-3 to Greensboro-White in the championship game. Johnny Medvec singled, doubled and drove in two runs for Roth, while Mike Grzier, Vince Garayua and Chris Gerberry scored runs.