Strongsville Beats Midpark to Advance to Regional Finals

One big inning along with outstanding pitching from Connor Ryan and equally effective infield play pushed Strongsville to a 5-0 win over Midpark in a Divison I regional semifinal baseball game Friday at Kent State.
 
The game was originally to be played at Case Western Reserve, was postponed on Thursday and moved to Kent State before finally being played under dry skies on Friday on the home field of the Mid-American Conference regular season champion Golden Flashes.
 
The Mustangs, winners of nine straight, advance to a 2 p.m. Saturday regional final at Bowling Green State University against the winner between Perrysburg and Toledo St. John's Jesuit, who played Friday at Bowling Green and were locked in a 0-0 battle in the 10th inning as the Strongsville-Midpark game was ending.
 
The big inning for the Mustangs (20-1) was the third when Strongsville batted around and scored four times that included RBI singles by Forrest Perron and Nate Langhals.
 
Later in the inning, the Mustangs scored when Anthony Mauer's fielder's choice grounder allowed Perron to score and Nate Langhals to reach second safely. Strongsville added another run when Austin Legate reached on a fielding error by Midpark third baseman Michael Bramante.
 
Ryan, who limited the Meteors (18-11) to just two hits over six innings along with four walks and a hit batsman, got out of trouble twice with ground ball double plays.
 
Midpark, which was shut out for just the second time in 29 games, had runners on base in each inning except the fifth and seventh. In the fifth, Ryan got one of his three strike outs, a ground out and a soft liner to get the side in order. In the seventh, Perron came on in relief and struck out two of the three hitters he faced.
 
"The credit goes to our pitching coach Jason Frederick, who stresses keeping the ball low to get ground balls," said Strongsville head coach Josh Sorge of Frederick, a former head coach at Huron before coming to Strongsville.
 
"We didn't play well today but we got the ground balls when we needed them," added Sorge.
 
The Mustangs, who had three runners either picked off or caught stealing, added a fifth run in the sixth when Perron walked with the bases loaded.
 
It was the third consecutive walk from Midpark pitching. Meteor starter Kyle Heineke got the first two hitters to start the inning but gave up a two-out single to Brennan Singleton followed by a walk to Justin Jakubik.
 
That forced Midpark head coach Mike Cieslik to go with Bob Bromund in place of Heineke. But Bromund walked the two hitters he faced including Perron to give Strongsville its fifth run.
 
Steve Barbee retired Langhals with the bases laoded on a line drive to third to keep the Midpark deficit at five.
 
"We had one bad inning," confessed Midpark's Cielslik. "But we played hard against a very good team. I'm proud of them," added Cielslik, whose team won eight straight after a 3-5 start and defeated Normandy, Lincoln-West and St. Ignatius in tournament play to get to the regional.

"And we just didn't get the big hit," added Cielslik.
 
The Meteors hits were an infield single with two out in the second by Marino Tenaglia and a single to left with one out in the third by Michael Bramante.
 
The Meteors had runners at first and second in the first inning on a walk and an error by Nate Langhals at shortstop but Ryan retired Adam Oblak on a ground ball to end the threat.
 
In the Midpark third, Michael Bramante got a one out single. That was followed by a ball going through the legs of Perron at second and a walk to Adam Singer to load the bases.
 
Ryan then got an inning-ending 6-3 double play with Langhals collecting a grounder, stepping on second and tossing to Colin Houdek at first for the third out.
 
Midpark had one more shot at getting on the board when Heineke was hit by a pitch to lead off the fourth. But Josh Croch hit into a 4-6-3 double play to kill the threat.
 
Over the final three innings, Ryan and Perron retired nine of the 10 Midpark hitters to come to bat with a walk to Heineke with two out in the sixth the only blemish.