Canfield 10-11 baseball team gets ready for another trip to state

July 29, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

Last summer, Canfield’s 9-10 Little League baseball team went unbeaten in tournament play, winning the state title.

This summer, the boys have advanced to the 10-11 age group and are hoping for a repeat. They’re off to a good start, winning all four of their district games to earn a berth in the state tournament that begins this weekend in Ashtabula.

But what they are really working for is a chance to do what last summer’s Canfield 11-12 team did — win state in 2016 and advance to the Great Lakes regional tournament in Indianapolis. Little League’s 9-10 and 10-11 brackets don’t have regional tournaments.

SDLqThat’s all our dreams and we hope they come true,” pitcher/second baseman Tony Pannunzio said of next year playing for a chance to advance to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. Little League’s 9-10 and 10-11 brackets don’t have regional tournaments.

Canfield will be busy when the state tournament begins on Saturday.

“It’s a great group of boys,” said Canfield manager Kevin Burdette who again is being assisted by Jim Petro and Tony Pannunzio. “You ask them to do something and you only have to tell them once.

“They have a great work ethic, all 13 kids work hard,” Burdette said. “You always see them up here taking extra batting practice, extra infield. They’re always hanging around a baseball field.”

In addition to Pannunzio, Canfield’s lineup includes Colin Burdette, Ryan Petro, Drew Carrocce, Gianni Gaetano, Jake Grdic, Nick Hewko, Nate Shaw, Christopher Altiere Jr., Landon Beidelschies, Alex Rothwell, Ryan Bennett and Josh Juliano.

The funniest player? Juliano and Pannunzio say Beidelschies, which is no surprise since his grandfather Pete Mollica was one of the friendliest employees ever at this newspaper.

“It has to be Landon because he says all the funny stuff,” Juliano said.

Pannunzio said, “He’s pretty funny and we all laugh. He keeps everybody up. When we’re down, he picks [us] up.”

The 13 players came together after playing on six teams in Canfield Baseball Club’s regular season.

Kevin Burdette said quality pitching at this time of summer is extremely valuable. His main pitchers include Grdic, Petro, Shaw, Burdette, Rothwell, Juliano and Hewko.

“I could probably throw all 13 — we have a really deep group,” Burdette said.

“Everybody contributes.”

Little League has pitching limits. The maximum is 85 pitches in a game.

If a player throws 20 pitches or fewer, he can pitch the next day. If it’s between 21-35, one day of rest is required.

If the total is between 36-50, two days of rest follows. If it’s between 51-65, three days of rest is needed. More than 65 triggers a four-day break.

“There is no substitute for depth, especially if you lose a game,” Burdette said of the double-elimination format. “You may end up playing five, six days in a row. With those pitch-count limitations, you need a lot of kids who can throw.”

Rothwell, who plays first base and pitches, said one of the highlights last summer of traveling to Bryan in northwest Ohio was watching their friends on ESPN during an off day.

“We were in our hotel and they were playing that day,” Rothwell said. “We ended up watching them play on TV.”

Juliano, who plays second base, said, “We got the projector out and we watched the whole game.”

Rothwell said: “It was cool to see kids that we know on TV, our friends.”

Pannunzio said, “[And] all the fans in the stands when the cameras were on them.”

Juliano said last year’s road trip “was fun. [Bryan was] kind of in the middle of nowhere.

“We went around town doing fun stuff on our off days,” Juliano said. “We always practiced every day. Being in the winner’s bracket is fun — we get more off days and more stuff to do.”

That’s the goal for the state tournament.

Burdette said he sometimes forgets how young his players are.

“They play such good baseball that when you watch them, you forget they are 11-year-old kids,” Burdette said. “When the error comes, you have to check yourself and remember that’s a little person.”

With big dreams.

“We want to go to Williamsport,” Rothwell said. “I think it would be really fun.”