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Walsh Jesuit’s Canzone too much for Fitch bats
The Division I district semifinal ended with a Falcon stranded at third
By Gary Housteau
STRUTHERS
With the tying run just 90 feet away, Walsh Jesuit struck out the final Austintown Fitch batter to end Wednesday’s Division I semifinal contest at Bob Cene Park.
Walsh Jesuit (20-6) won, 2-1, to advance to tonight’s district final against Stow-Munroe Falls.
For 42/3 innings, Walsh Jesuit’s Dom Canzone faced the minimum number of Fitch batters.
Then the wheels temporarily came off the wagon for the Ohio State recruit.
Nick Bianco started the two-out, fifth-inning rally with a walk. An error on the shortstop on a ground ball off the bat of Brian Beany put Falcons on first and second.
Robbie Russo drove in Fitch’s only run of the game with a sharp single to right field to cut the Warriors lead in half.
Walsh coach Chris Kaczmar admitted he was a little concerned.
“In district tournament play, of course you get concerned,” Kaczmar said. “You expect to have some adversity against a good team but we hung in there.
“Dom was able to continue to pound the zone and we were able to make the plays.”
It was certainly a well-pitched contest by a pair of senior pitchers. Canzone, who pitched a two-hitter, struck out 11 Falcons, walked one and hit a batter while Jerod Kapturasky, who gave up five hits, struck out five and walked three Warriors.
“It was a great ball game, two good pitchers, both teams made plays,” Fitch coach Wally Ford said.
Kaczmar said, “Dom Canzone was extremely sharp today and I thought we got production from all the way down the lineup.
“Their pitcher was just tremendous,” the Walsh Jesuit coach said. “We had seen him once but he was fantastic. You tip your cap to a guy like that [who] is able to throw strikes with all of those pitches as he did.
“But we were able to get on base and scratch a few runs across. It was a great high school baseball and both teams deserved to move on.”
Walsh literally had to scratch across their two runs in the bottom of the third inning. Kapturasky walked the leadoff batter to start the rally and then gave up a base hit to put Warriors on first and second.
A sacrifice moved the runners to second and third before a wild pitch let in the first Warrior run.
A two-out walk to Canzone put runners on first and third when a mental mistake allowed Walsh to plate another run. Kapturasky caught Canzone off of first base and while he was caught up in a rundown the runner on third crossed the plate before the out to give the Warriors a 2-0 lead after three.
That second run turned out to be the difference in the game.
“In that third inning, with runners on first and third, they sent the runner early and we wanted to get out of that inning because they had their three and four guys coming up,” Ford said. “It ended up being the winning run.
“Kappy had a great performance in the sectional final and followed that up with another great pitching performance today,” Ford said. “He certainly pitched well enough for us to win.
“And [Canzone] was tough. We just had to battle and battle and try to make every at bat as tough as possible. We got a few things going just not quite enough.”
The disappointing loss ended the Falcons season with a 10-11 mark.
“I feel bad because of the final result and that the season is over,” Ford said. “But I’m really proud of the effort that they put out there today and with the way we finished up the season too. We finished up really well.”