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Cards ride early lead vs. Spartans for district title
Canfield wins Division I district title
By BRIAN Dzenis
SOLON
A lot changed in three days, but the results stayed the same for the Canfield softball team.
The Cardinals mercy-ruled their Division I district title game opponent — the Boardman Spartans — on Monday, but it didn’t make for an easy Wednesday.
While Boardman put up a better fight in Solon, Canfield got the 4-2 victory.
“We have our on days and off days. Monday was definitely an on day and today, some people were on and some people were off,” Canfield outfielder Ally Sammarco said. “The people who are on have to pick the people who are off and we did that today.”
Sammarco qualifies as one of the Cardinals that was on. The junior made a critical defensive stop in the first inning and knocked home an insurance run in the sixth.
Boardman (11-9) threatened to score in the top of the first, putting runners at first and second with one out. The Spartans’ Lauren Pavlansky made a break for home from second when Alicia Saxton hit the ball into center field, but Sammarco threw her out at home.
“Getting that girl out at home gave us the momentum for how we thought the game was going to go,” Sammarco said. “We’re usually the comeback kids, so making the big play first was interesting.”
The good vibe held up in the bottom of the inning. Cardinal’s Jill Baker had an RBI double and Jenna Gibson followed up with a two-run homer.
“It gave me a lot of confidence,” Canfield starter Kaili Gross said of the early lead. “I knew my team could hit the ball and score runs.”
Gross wasn’t overpowering, but she was an effective steward of that lead. She didn’t strike out anyone, but she didn’t walk anyone, giving up five hits while going the distance. The two runs Boardman scored were unearned.
The game stayed 3-0 through six innings, much to the chagrin of Cardinals coach Mike Melewski. He watched his team put runners in on second and third in the third and the bases loaded in fourth inning and come away with nothing.
“I would have felt a little more sure if we got three more runs out of those times we had the bases loaded,” Melewski said. “There was two much game left to play.”
Boardman’s Ashley Cornelius reached first on an error at shortstop and then scored on Saxton’s double. Another error at short gave the Spartans their second point later that inning.
At the turn, Sammarco beat a throw to from Saxton to score Savannah Maass. It was a play so close, it required all three umpires to talk it over to confirm the call that she was safe at first. Neither Melewski nor Boardman coach Mike Trell was entirely convinced she was safe.
“We felt [first baseman Sarah Murray] held her foot on the bag and that the throw beat [Sammarco],” Trell said. “The umpire’s contention was that he heard the foot hit before he heard the glove.”
Gross coaxed two grounders and a popout to seal the win.
The teams split the regular season series, Boardman beat Canfield 4-2 on May 9. Canfield (21-4) knocked Boardman out of the playoffs for the second consecutive year.
“The difference was we didn’t hit as well as we needed to to win and defensively, we didn’t play super clean,” Trell said. “Canfield is a great team and we needed to play clean, we just didn’t play clean enough.”
Canfield will play Walsh Jesuit in a regional semifinal Wednesday at the University of Akron’s Lee Jackson Field.