By Roger Gordon

Correspondent

There is a reason that Johnny Slisz is being recruited by several NCAA Division-II schools.

The Aurora junior is one of the top pitchers in Northeast Ohio.

Slisz’s latest exploits came May 11 in a 9-0 triumph at home over Suburban League American Conference rival Revere, helping the Greenmen, now 17-5 overall and 10-3 in the conference, in their battle with Highland and Kent Roosevelt for the American championship.

He started and went the distance — his third straight complete game — yielding just three hits while fanning 11 and walking four.

“Johnny has been consistent, and he’s getting stronger as the season goes on,” head coach Glenn Galang said. “He’s also a tremendous competitor with a lot of fire.”

Pacing Aurora’s offensive attack, including a seven-run fifth inning, were junior designated hitter Jackson Brooker and classmate Gabe Cooch, the third baseman. Both had two singles. Brooker also scored twice.

“Jackson has a tremendous bat,” said Galang. “Gabe is one of my best hitters on the team. He’s done a tremendous job not only at the plate as my cleanup hitter but also defensively and pitching. He’s a well-rounded player with a great future.”

With two RBI and a run scored were senior centerfielder Ryan Slisz (Johnny’s brother) and junior leftfielder Ryan Ziegler.

Junior second baseman Elijah Shim had a sacrifice fly; he is hitting in the .460s and leads the team in RBI.

FIELD

How do you win a baseball game 11-1 while managing just three hits?

It’s simple: When your opposition walks 11 batters and hits four more batters.

That is exactly what happened to Field on May 11 as the Falcons “walked” their way to an extra easy home win over Metro Athletic Conference (MAC) foe Springfield that was called after six innings due to the 10-run rule.

Field, now 15-3 overall and 10-3 in the conference, is battling Norton and Cloverleaf for MAC supremacy.

The home team’s hits were all singles — by senior first baseman Joey Dilworth (3 RBI, run, walk), senior second baseman Nick Cultrona (run, walk) and sophomore right fielder Caden Corbett (run).

Pitching wise, senior Caden Kolesar started and went five innings, giving up five hits while fanning eight and walking one. Sophomore Alex Williams pitched the final frame.

“Caden started off rough,” head coach Joe Peterson said, “giving up three singles in the first inning, but then he really bared down and dug himself out of that hole. Springfield had some traffic again in the second inning, but he was able to find a way out of it. Caden is just a competitor, he’s a bulldog. He has a next-pitch mentality.”

CRESTWOOD

A blazing start lifted Crestwood to an 8-3 victory May 9 at home over Western Reserve Academy on Senior Day.

Leading the way for the Red Devils, who are now 8-11, were senior catcher Bobby Bradley and sophomore outfielder Michael Kalista. Bradley homered, doubled, drove in two runs and scored twice, while Kalista rapped a double and three singles, knocked in two runs and scored once.

“Bobby has been our three-hole hitter ever since he was a freshman. He’s always been that guy,” head coach Chris Stanley said. “He can hit to all fields, he hits the off-speed pitch well. When he stays within himself, the kid is good.

“Michael had a great game at the plate. He gritted through a tough start this season. As of late, he’s really started to pick the ball up. If you look at him, he’s not a big kid, but he’s got some pop. He has four doubles and a triple this year. He’s hit the ball really hard and is really getting into his own with his swing. He’s put a lot of work in and has really come through for us as of late.”

On the mound a combination of seniors Kyle Shelhamer (who started), Jake Eyerman, Nolan Huntington and Wyatt Januska plus junior Dakota Powers yielded just seven hits, not all of which were sharp line drives.

“A couple were just bleeders off the end of the bat or just balls that got jammed,” said Stanley. “I was very pleased with how the guys threw because they threw strikes, and that’s really all we care about first and foremost.”

MOGADORE

Maddox Smith did it all for Mogadore May 11 in a 5-3 win at Kidron Central Christian.

The Wildcats are now 7-10.

The junior Wildcat flourished on the mound and at the plate.

On the mound Smith started and went 5.1 innings, giving up all three runs and five hits while striking out seven and walking four.

“Maddox threw great,” head coach Chris Williams said. “He commanded the zone, he worked ahead a lot. He did struggle on the back half sometimes which raised his pitch count a little bit, but he fought through it. He got through a pretty vaunted batting order.”

Noah Hopkins, Smith’s classmate, pitched the final 1.2 innings, yielding a hit and walking one.

Smith helped himself on offense by doubling, singling and scoring a run.

“Maddox was really patient,” said Williams. “He sat on a couple of good curveballs and was able to drive some balls into the gaps, which is good because he’s got good speed, and so when he gets on the basepaths he’s another threat there.”

Hopkins, who also played center field, tripled and scored once, while Jake Hopkins had a stolen base.

ROOTSTOWN

It’s not exactly breaking news that clutch hits in baseball usually come late in games.

Rootstown has been so devoid of clutch hitting this season that, when senior shortstop Ethan White smacked a two-run single in the bottom of the first inning that gave his team a 2-1 lead May 11 at home against Windham, Rovers head coach Keith Waesch described it as a “clutch hit” — in the FIRST inning.

“We haven’t been the beneficiary of many clutch hits this year,” said Waesch, whose team ended up winning 5-1 and now has a 7-10 record. “We’ve played a lot of low-scoring games where we’ve oftentimes outhit the opposition but just haven’t gotten the big hits. We’ve been one hit away many times. It was nice to get that important hit against Windham early on.”

White wound up with two singles as did senior centerfielder Brady Brown, who also scored a pair of runs.

“Brady’s season started out slow at the plate, but over the past handful of games he has certainly come around,” the coach said. “He’s finding ways to get on base at the bottom of the order.”

Senior R.J. Soika started on the hill and went the distance, fanning five and hitting a batter. He also was the object of a statistics oddity — he had six assists, one more than his strikeout total!

“R.J. is a strikeout pitcher but didn’t have a ton of strikeouts. He was solid, though,” said Waesch. “At times, what’s gotten him in trouble is the occasional walk or two. That seems to always come back to haunt him in terms of scoring whether it be a walk or a hit batter. In this game, he was able to not go too deep in counts. He had three innings — the second, third and fourth — where he threw either 10 or 11 innings pitches each inning. And in the sixth inning he

threw 10 pitches. He was for the most part very efficient. When you’re not striking out a ton of kids, you can at times keep your pitch count lower because you don’t get deep in counts. He did what he had to do, that’s for sure.”

WINDHAM

The reason for Windham’s 5-1 defeat on May 11 at Rootstown, according to Bombers head coach Jake Eye?

“They just made a few more plays and added a few more hits than we did,” he said. “We put the ball in play, but we didn’t really drive the baseball.”

Windham slipped to 7-8.

Sophomore Keegan Kiser’s first-inning RBI single that drove home classmate Michael Bolyard, the catcher, was one of only three hits for Windham – and gave the visitors a short-lived lead. The Rovers answered with two runs in the bottom of the frame.

Kiser started on the mound and went 3.2 innings, yielding three runs and four hits while striking out six and walking three. Relieving Kiser was classmate Bryan Smithberger, who pitched the rest of the way, giving up two runs and three hits with a strikeout.

“I thought Keegan pitched well,” said Eye. “He made a few mistakes in 0-2 counts that hurt him a little bit, but overall I thought it was probably one of the better games he’s pitched all year as far as having command of the zone.

“Bryan came in in a tough spot with the bases loaded but only gave up a run. He did a good job of minimizing the damage done in that fourth inning. And then from there on out, I thought he had good command as well.”

STREETSBORO

Streetsboro’s 10-0 loss May 11 at Metro Athletic Conference (MAC) rival Norton could have had a much different tone, according to Rockets head coach Chris Scisciani.

“In the top of the third, down 1-0, we had guys on first and third with one out,” Scisciani said. “We just couldn’t get a run or runs in to tie or take the lead, and then Norton leads off the last of the third with a home run. Then a couple errors, a couple mistakes, we threw the ball around a little bit, and the next thing you know they score seven, and it’s 8-0.

“We’re trying to find ways to play a little more consistent and do a little more damage control when we’re getting into situations like that. Instead of giving up five or seven runs, only giving up two or three so we’re still in it.”

The visitors, who are now 8-10 overall and who finished 7-7 in the MAC, managed just three hits — all singles — in a game that was called after 4.5 innings due to the 10-run rule. Two were by junior shortstop Brady Long, the other by freshman third baseman Graham Jonas.

Despite the fact that Scisciani’s squad has been struggling offensively as of late, Long and senior Scotty Wilson are both batting in the .400s. In fact, the latter recently broke Ricky

Delambo’s school record of 86 career hits that stood for 11 years. Wilson is now closing in on the century mark.

On the mound, Jake Szczecinski started and went 2.1 innings, yielding four runs and three hits while striking out three and walking three. Wilson pitched the rest of the way, giving up six runs and five hits while striking out five and walking two.

“We struggled a tiny bit getting ahead of batters, so their hitters were getting in good hitting counts,” said the coach. “That hurt us a little bit.”