43
Poland dominates with 12-run inning en route to district title
Poland dominates in Boardman with 12-run inning en route to district title
By charles grove
boardman
It appeared to be one of those games where no lead was safe, but Poland left no doubt after a decisive fourth inning propelled them into the Junior League state tournament.
Poland, leading 7-5 after three innings, sent 15 batters to the plate in a 12-run inning that was more than enough to eventually give Poland a 21-13 win.
It was a wildly different game than Poland’s 7-4 win a night ago that forced a decisive game that looked like a football score if you only saw the final tally.
“Once our bats came alive, we were rolling,” Poland manager John Shurilla said. “And it’s not just one kid, the whole lineup hit tonight.”
Poland pounded out 16 hits and were aided by nine Boardman errors. Boardman manager Joe Kordupel said a night ago he was hoping his team’s bats would come alive. They did. Boardman tallied 14 hits of their own but it wasn’t enough to stop Poland from taking two straight to snatch a district title.
“When you score 13 runs you should win,” Kordupel said. “We had so many errors and you just can’t win with that. Credit to Poland because they played a clean game all night.”
Poland jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the top of the first when Jake Smith, Stephen Carney, Zachary Yaskulka and Bailey Swogger each touched home. Boardman answered right back in their half when Colin Rushen drove in Joey Kordupel before a Kyle Frommelt sacrifice fly drove in Jimmy Goske to make it 4-2.
Boardman added on an inning later when Goske singled to center to drive in Rocco Beato. A batter later, Rushen doubled to left, bringing home Goske and Brandon Mackovick and just like that Boardman was up 5-4.
Poland scored three more in the third before the big fourth inning. The first six batters reached and all scored, highlighted by an inside-the-park home run by Jake Bacon. The score stood at 10-5 before Joe Kordupel brought in Dante Digaetano in relief of Owen Lewis. Digaetano got through two-thirds of an inning but five more runs scored before he gave way to Carmen Quattro. When the dust settled, it was 19-5 and parents were warming up their cameras for postgame pictures already.
But Boardman didn’t lay down.
“Our goal was to get half the runs back we needed each inning,” Joe Kordupel said.
Boardman wasn’t quite able to do that but they managed to get two back in the fourth on a double from Digaetano and when they needed three runs to keep the game going in the bottom of the fifth they found them. Joey Kordupel drove in Eagan Hare and Quattro and a Goske sacrifice fly a batter later cut the deficit to nine, extending the game.
Boardman cut the lead to eight in the sixth but eventually time ran out and Poland celebrated after Quattro grounded out into a fielder’s choice to end the game.
After his team scored 14 more runs than they did an evening ago, Shurilla said his team was much more selective at the plate this time around.
“They were patient,” Shurilla said. “Some kids were reaching out early on and one inning we only saw four pitches. I told them to stay within their zones and to wait for pitches. Two innings later we waited and had that big inning.”
Poland will be one of nine teams playing in the state tournament which will be at Fields of Dreams starting on July 23. Shurilla said he was happy his team had to battle for the district title so his pitchers could get some tough experience before state.
“We’ve had four starters throw complete games for us and I think that’s really going to help us because they really know what they have to do,” Shurilla said.