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Poland baseball eyes first state berth since 1983
By Greg Gulas
POLAND
The Poland Bulldogs will head back to regional play this week after successfully defending their Division II district title last Thursday at Struthers’ Cene Park.
It’s the field on which Bulldogs head coach Rich Murray wishes he were still playing.
Poland (25-2) swept through the recent Struthers District, outscoring its three opponents by a 33-3 count with two games never advancing to the sixth inning.
They will meet the Akron District No. 4 seed Tallmadge Blue Devils — last year’s regional runners-up and district top seed who punched their ticket by defeating Peninsula Woodridge, 12-7 — on Thursday at 5 p.m. at The Ball Park at Hudson.
The Ball Park hasn’t been as kind as Cene Park has been to the Bulldogs during the Murray-era and was the site of a still stinging, 3-2 semifinal loss last year to Woodridge.
“We have eight seniors on our team and no one has forgotten last year’s game. Their center fielder made a Willie Mays-type catch with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to secure the win and put an end to our season,” said Murray, who is making his sixth regional appearance in 12 years. “We hadn’t won the district in three years and felt as though we had a team that could make a deep run, so it really was a heartbreaking loss. We’ve won a couple games over the years at The Ball Park but haven’t been able to get out of Hudson.”
The Bulldogs have advanced to the state tournament just once in program history, that coming in 1983 when Bob Martinko was head coach and Murray — who was presented the 200th victory of his Bulldogs’ coaching career after their 12-2 victory over Canfield in the district championship game — pitched and won the regional championship game against Mentor Lake Catholic.
Depth-wise, Murray feels that this year’s team is his deepest since taking over the program 12 seasons ago.
He also feels this group has what it takes to become the second Bulldogs team to advance to the state tournament.
“We’ve done what we’ve had to do so far, not thinking of regionals and just playing one game at a time,” he said. “We don’t know much about Tallmadge other than they have just three seniors and are a very young team. While we’ve heard some things about their program, it’s tough when you aren’t able to scout your opponent.”
The Bulldogs batted .381 and outscored opponents 290-80 this season.
In outscoring opponents by nearly eight runs a game, 13 of their 27 games ended before regulation with the 10-run mercy rule invoked.
The pitching staff is battle-tested and remains Murray’s deepest position with 18 players that can start.
The staff is led by Adam Knight (8-0, 0.44 ERA), who has allowed just three earned runs all year and struck out 53 batters in 47 innings, and expected opening game starter Jared Burkert (5-0, 1.88 ERA), who has 46 strikeouts in 34 innings and is the architect of the team’s only no-hitter this season.
“Winning district was big, but we better be on our toes now with regional play set to begin,” Burkert said. “What we’ve done to this point really doesn’t matter. We’d love to be the next Poland team to make it to state, but a lot of things have to fall our way and we must have a one game at a time mindset. It’s an exciting time for our team.”
Added Knight, “It’s always easier to throw when the team is hitting well and you have a lead. Also, it’s great to know that you can rely on your defense to make plays behind you. Our goal at the beginning of the season was a district championship and after that, just play our game at a time and don’t take any team too lightly if we expect to keep advancing.”
Eric White (4-0, 2.58 ERA), Matt Baker (3-0), Dan Klase (2-1), Pad O’Shaughnessy (1-1), Mark Passarello (1-0) and Don Drummond (1-0) are also available.
Defensively, Poland committed just 30 errors in 27 games and is strong once again up the middle.
Catcher Ricky Svetlak leads the team in batting (.522), RBIs (38), home runs (two), walks (19) and hits by pitch (nine).
Jake Hawkins (.303, 25 RBIs, 20 runs scored) is the first baseman with Klase at second base and Anthony Calcagni (.484, 22 stolen bases) at shortstop. Calcagni leads the team in hits (47) and runs (45).
The third baseman is Dom Lipari (.400, 33 runs, 27 RBIs).
White (.449, 22 RBIs), who has struck out just three times in 69 plate appearances, roams center field when he isn’t pitching and is flanked by Nick Romeo (.333, 14 runs) in left and Marty Malenic (.314, 31 runs, nine stolen bases, team-high 16 walks) in right.
The designated hitter is Andrew Kosco, a .389 hitter with 24 RBIs and 22 runs scored.
“The key will be our pitching. They’ll need to throw strikes knowing full well they have an excellent defense behind them and an offense that can put runs on the board,” Murray said.
Rounding out the squad is William Aey, Tony Chiaro, Brendan Glosser, Nick Petrolla and Conner Sperati.
Ryan Gesacion has assisted Murray all 12 seasons while Chris Martin is in his second season with the program.
The winner will play the Ashtabula Edgewood-Canton South winner on Friday at 5 p.m.