PARMA — The Padua baseball team went shopping at The Gap.
With five of their eight hits going for extra bases Monday, the Bruins’ investment in power paid off with a comfortable 5-1 victory over Buckeye in a Cuyahoga Community College Division II Sectional final.
Buckeye right fielder Pat Caniglia cant make a diving catch off a hit by Padua’s David Miller during the second inning. AARON JOSEFCZYK/GAZETTE
Ranked 10th in the Prep Baseball Report D-II state poll, top-seeded Padua (19-5) advanced to face fourth-seeded Firelands on Thursday. Though the ninth-seeded Bucks (12-12-1) were eliminated from the postseason, they can clinch a share of the Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division title with a win at Brooklyn (6-16, 2-12) on Wednesday.
That will have to be the consolation prize after the Bruins scored five unanswered runs and got a combined one-hitter from Marc Ochoa, Kyle Wisniewski and Matt Jackman.
“They’re a good hitting team,” Buckeye coach Steve Wright said. “No doubt.”
Wright started curveball specialist Evan Walker (2-3) over Mount Union recruit Liam Murray, who was four days removed from no-hitting Cloverleaf. Walker was solid the first time through the lineup, but Padua came alive after Buckeye took a 1-0 lead on two second-inning errors.
The Bruins tied the score in the third with a walk, sacrifice bunt, wild pitch and sacrifice fly, ending Buckeye’s streak without allowing a run at 48⅓ innings.
The game then unraveled for the Bucks in the fourth, as a double, single and double resulted in a 3-1 Bruins lead. Kevin Houdek then ended Walker’s afternoon with an RBI double down the left-field line.
Relievers Garett Priestley and Pat Caniglia kept the deficit manageable by allowing one run over the next 2⅓ innings — following the game-long theme, that run came on a triple — but comebacks against Padua, which swept area superpower Walsh Jesuit in North Coast League Blue Division play, have been rare this season.
“Not being able to hit the ball, a couple mistakes we made and couple hits they got were just enough for them to get us,” Wright said. “The good teams will take advantage of mistakes, and that’s basically what they did.”
Buckeye struggled offensively despite Ochoa’s struggles with the strike zone.
Bluffton commit Nathanael Hendrix and Murray led off the second inning with walks. Two batters later, a botched force play at second base had the bags juiced.
A short flyout wasn’t enough to potentially score Hendrix, but Buckeye got on the board soon thereafter when a grounder scooted by the third baseman. Murray tried to catch the defense napping after Hendrix scored but was gunned down at the plate to end the inning.
The Bucks didn’t get a runner past first base the rest of the game and were in danger of being no-hit with the long-armed Wisniewski (4 innings, 0 runs, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts), who entered in the third, on his game. Hiram recruit Andrew Maxwell finally broke up the no-no when center fielder Alex Ludwick narrowly missed a diving catch to begin the fifth inning.
“I told the guys this is a very, very good team,” Wright said. “We held them to a 5-1 game and very well could have been a lot closer than that had we not made the mistakes. I was proud of them, for sure.”