Canfield-Poland district final to resume today

May 23, 2019 at 12:05a.m.

Canfield-Poland to resume today

STRUTHERS

The Battle of 224 will have to wait until today to reach a conclusion. Poland led Canfield 2-1 before the game was called in the bottom of the third inning on Wednesday night at Cene Park.

The game is scheduled to resume today at 4:30 p.m. at Cene Park’s Field 1.

Dom Pilolli was at the plate when rain moved through the area. The heavy rain ended, but thunderstorms followed while the officials and coaches were deciding the plans moving forward. The rain delay lasted 32 minutes.

Canfield (17-5) jumped on the Bulldogs in the bottom of the first inning. Pilolli led off with a triple down the right-field line and scored in the next at-bat on a groundout by Ricky Havrilla.

Poland (19-6) took the lead in the top of the third on a two-out single by Jeremy Castro with the bases loaded.

“It’s been a great thing here the last couple weeks. The bottom of the order is starting to hit,” Poland head coach Rich Murray said. “The bottom of the order wasn’t hitting at all most of the year.”

Poland pitcher Alex Barth allowed one run on one hit and two walks. He struck out one in three-plus innings pitched.

Canfield pitcher Brayden Beck allowed two runs on three hits and two walks with a pair of strikeouts in three innings.

Both Barth and Beck threw over 30 pitches, so neither starter can take the mound in today’s game.

“[Today, Barth’s] out, my No.1’s out,” Murray said. “I don’t know ... next man up.”

Canfield head coach Gary Knittle would have preferred the game didn’t get rained out. He said the Cardinals were in a bit of a groove, but the team will have to pick up where they left off.

It isn’t the first time the Cardinals have been down in the playoffs. Canfield came back from a 3-2 deficit to beat Alliance 8-3 in the district semifinal on Monday.

“Honestly, at this point I don’t think this an advantage for anyone,” Knittle said. “I know we both wanted to finish this tonight, but we’ll both come back [today].

“We had a lot of confidence. We’ve been down before. This isn’t the first time we’ve been down all year.”

Canfield is playing for its third consecutive district title while the Bulldogs are trying for their first district crown since 2016.

Division IV Pushed Back

Today’s Division IV district final between Warren JFK and Springfield will be scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

The game was originally scheduled for 5 p.m. on Field 1.