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Timely hits elude Blue Devils in season-ending defeat
By Steve WILAJ
LORAIN
Western Reserve didn’t play like Western Reserve in Friday’s Division IV regional final at The Lorain Pipe Yard. The result was a 6-5 loss to Cuyahoga Heights, ending the Blue Devils’ hopes of a third straight trip to the state tournament.
“We made some errors we don’t usually make and even some mental errors we normally don’t make,” head coach Ed Anthony said. “It’s not that the kids didn’t play hard — we left it all on the field — but it just wasn’t in the cards for us.”
Western Reserve (21-7) — which lost in the state semifinals in 2014 before falling in the state championship last season — out-hit the Redskins 12-7. But the Blue Devils left the bases loaded twice, stranded runners in scoring position in six of the seven innings, committed two errors and tossed six wild pitches.
“The last few years we were pretty successful, so this is a hard one,” Anthony said. “The kids played hard and I’m very proud of them for that.
“But we put ourselves in that position. It comes down to sound pitching, sound defense and timely hitting. And we lacked in all those phases.”
Trailing by one entering the bottom of the seventh, Logan Matas singled and Ryan Demsky reached on an error with two outs. But Michael Hartman — Cuyahoga Heights’ winning pitcher who went the entire game — induced Wyatt Larimer into a groundout to end the game, the throw from third beating him by half a step.
“It’s real frustrating,” said Blue Devils starter Jeep DiCiccio. “But that’s baseball — some days you’re on, some days you’re off. A lot of the breaks didn’t go in our favor today.”
Tied at 3 in the fourth inning, the Redskins knocked DiCiccio from the game and scored three runs. One scored on a wild pitch, while Dom Velasquez surrendered a two-run single to Brett Lowther as Cuyahoga Heights took a 6-3 lead.
But the Blue Devils answered with two runs in the fifth — helped by the sun. Ryan Slaven singled on a pop-fly to right field when the Redskins’ Aaron Kucia lost the ball in the sun. A run scored on a wild pitch to follow. Larimer then sent a fly ball to right field, which once again dropped when Kucia lost it, scoring a run and cutting the deficit to 6-5.
That’s as close as the Blue Devils would come, though.
“Our timely hitting wasn’t good,” said Western Reserve senior Walker Marlowe, who had two hits. “We hit the ball well, but had bad timely hitting.”
Cuyahoga Heights took a 1-0 lead in the second helped by Western Reserve miscues. Kucia singled to start the frame and — after advancing to second on a groundout — came around to score on two DiCiccio wild pitches.
The Blue Devils tried to answer in the bottom half — loading the bases with one out — but Demsky flew out to right field and Larimer struck out to end the threat.
After the Redskins added two runs in the top of the third, Western Reserve broke through with three runs in the bottom half to tie the contest.
Marlowe singled and scored on a throwing error, Justin Ciccone notched an RBI infield single and Slaven walked with the bases loaded. Still, the Blue Devils left the bases loaded for the second straight inning.
“We were able to get out of innings and stop the bleeding when they had some rallies,” Cuyahoga Heights coach Marc Lowther said. “We played flawless other than the one inning. And then Mike pitched a great game.”
Hartman allowed five runs in seven innings, striking out four and walking four. DiCiccio took the loss for Western Reserve (four runs on four hits in three innings), while Velasquez allowed two runs in three innings and Larimer pitched a scoreless seventh.
“We’re building a dynasty here,” said DiCiccio, a junior. “Next year I really hope we get back here and play these guys again.”
Said the senior Marlowe: “I’m honored to have been a part of all of it.”
Cuyahoga Heights (14-9) will meet Sidney Lehman Catholic or North Lewisburg Triad in a state semifinal at 7 p.m. on Friday at Huntington Park in Columbus.