HUDSON — The stuff fairytales are made of ended in the nightmare of a lifetime.
Wadsworth designated hitter Alex Laikos was at the plate Wednesday in the Hudson Division I District championship with his dugout on the edge of pandemonium. The Grizzlies were trailing Walsh Jesuit by one, but the winning run was on first base with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.
Wadsworth’s Adam Dennison and his teammates react after losing 5-4 to Walsh Jesuit in the Hudson Division I District final. Wadsworth ends the season 27-1. (RON SCHWANE / GAZETTE)
Three months earlier, Laikos, a Kent State recruit, was in a hospital undergoing reconstructive surgery on his right knee. He defied the odds and made it back onto the field, making for a scenario fit for Hollywood.
Side-arming, Marshall-bound closer Shane Downey then delivered a 2-1 pitch. Laikos made contact and the 500-plus fans at The Ball Park at Hudson held their collective breath.
The slow roller went toward charging second baseman Brendan Regan, who fielded cleanly and attempted to tag the advancing Dylan Palidar in the same motion. Palidar somehow acrobatically twisted away safely, and Regan instinctively fired to first.
The ball hit first baseman Dominic Canzone’s glove while Laikos’ foot hit the bag simultaneously. The first-base umpire didn’t hesitate, pumping his fist to make his third controversial call of the 52-degree afternoon.
Game over, the Warriors won 5-4 and everyone threw their hands in the air — Walsh Jesuit players in celebration and Wadsworth players in complete shock after their heart-pounding rally ended like a high-powered rifle shot glancing off bulletproof steel.
“It’s unfortunate,” Grizzlies coach Greg Pickard said. “I wish we could have done something more earlier in the game so we wouldn’t have gotten in that spot.
“Two calls at first kind of took us out of two innings. … Obviously, we could have (taken advantage of) more opportunities early. You can never blame a game on an umpire.”
The play ended a classic game that exceeded the hype. The only undefeated team in Ohio, the Grizzlies (27-1), were No. 2 in the Prep Baseball Report D-I state poll, while the Warriors (25-3) were No. 3 along with owing the No. 33 slot in MaxPrep’s Xcellent 50 national rankings.
Wadsworth appeared dead in the water after Walsh Jesuit scored two critical insurance runs with two outs in the top of the seventh off right-handed reliever Chris Byers. Warriors coach Chris Kaczmar then replaced Missouri recruit Ty Shoaff (6-0) with Ohio State pledge Canzone, who moved to the mound from first base to begin the bottom half of the inning with his team leading 5-2.
Like they did all season, the Grizzlies battled until the bitter end.
Toledo recruit Riley Campbell led off with a towering two-strike triple to ignite the intensity. Jared Houser struck out swinging, but the hard-throwing Canzone lost the strike zone and walked Craig Palidar, Kyle Pennington (2-for-3) and Adam Dennison consecutively — the first two on 3-2 counts — to make it 5-3.
Kaczmar yanked Canzone and brought in Downey with the bases loaded to face Dylan Palidar, who then smacked an RBI fielder’s choice to third baseman Dom Mittita (3-for-4, 2 RBIs) that moved the score to 5-4.
That set up the bang-bang call both teams will remember for years.
“One-one count, I was looking fastball the whole way,” Laikos said. “I just didn’t get my hands through (the strike zone). It’s unacceptable.
“I thought I beat it out, but you can’t worry about that. The ball should have been in the outfield somewhere.”
Wadsworth also will remember a couple what-ifs earlier in the game.
The left-handed Shoaff, who beat the Grizzlies 9-3 in last season’s district semis, got through the lineup once with ease before the Wadsworth bats dialed in. Campbell reached on a two-out error in the third, leading to consecutive singles by Houser, Craig Palidar and Pennington that scored the first two runs. The inning ended with runners on second and third.
Two Grizzlies runners were stranded again in the fourth shortly after controversial call No. 1, as speedy No. 9 hitter A.J. Robinson attempted a sacrifice bunt and was called out after Shoaff’s scoop and throw. Campbell then smoked a one-hop come-backer that Shoaff snared to end the threat and preserve the Warriors’ 2-1 deficit.
“I thought A.J. beat (it) out,” Pickard said. “We had something going a little bit.”
Spurred by Shoaff getting out of the jam, the Warriors finally got to Wadsworth starter Cameron Deemer (5-1) in the top of the fifth. The 5-foot-7 right-hander, who started in large part due to clutch victories over St. Edward and Strongsville earlier in the season, allowed a leadoff single to Ohio State signee Azim Qadri, but two pitches later got a textbook double-play ball to second baseman Adam Dennison.
Dennison fielded cleanly and fired a tad high to shortstop Campbell, who couldn’t make the catch for only his fourth error of the season. The runners promptly were moved to second and third on a sacrifice bunt, setting up RBIs by Buffalo recruit Connor Regan (fielder’s choice) and Mittiga (infield single) that sent Deemer to the dugout.
Then came controversial call No. 2, as the first batter Byers faced, Wadsworth native Dan Mendenhall, hit a two-out dribbler to the right of Byers and was called out at first with two runners already aboard.
Though they fully believed the call against Mendenhall was poetic justice, the Grizzlies did nothing to take advantage at the plate over the next two innings.
They did everything they could, however, in their last at-bats with their season on the line.
That made the ending doubly hard to accept.
“We thought we were (going to win) there for a minute,” Pennington said, his voice cracking. “It just didn’t fall our way.”
Contact Albert Grindle at (330) 721-4043 or agrindle@medina-gazette.com.
Walsh Jesuit 5, Wadsworth 4
Hudson Division I District Final
Walsh Jesuit (25-3) Wadsworth (27-1)
AB R H BI AB R H BI
Qadri lf 4 1 1 0 Campbell ss 4 2 1 0
Canzone 1b 3 0 0 0 Houser lf 3 1 1 0
Jenkins cf 3 0 2 0 C.Palidar c 3 1 1 1
C.Regan c 4 1 1 1 Pennington 3b 3 0 2 1
Deleone rf 2 2 1 1 Dennison 2b 3 0 1 1
Mittiga 3b 4 0 3 2 D.Palidar 1b 4 0 0 1
Mendenhall dh 2 0 0 0 Laikos dh 3 0 0 0
Minorik ss 2 0 0 0 Bebout rf 3 0 1 0
B.Regan 2b 2 0 0 1 Robinson cf 1 0 0 0
Shoaff p 0 0 0 0 Deemer p 0 0 0 0
Knipfer pr 0 0 0 0 Lallathin pr 0 0 0 0
Pipoly pr 0 0 0 0 Looser pr 0 0 0 0
Marshall pr 0 1 0 0 Rock ph 1 0 0 0
Reich pr 0 0 0 0 Egleston pr 0 0 0 0
Totals 26 5 8 5 Totals 28 4 7 4
WALSH JESUIT 000 120 2 — 5 8 3
WADSWORTH 002 000 2 — 4 7 1
DP — Wadsworth (7-5-6). E — Shoaff, Mittiga, C. Regan, Campbell. LOB — Walsh Jesuit 8, Wadsworth 9. 2B — Jenkins, Deleone. 3B — Mittiga, Campbell. S — Jenkins, Robinson. SF — B. Regan. SB — Marshall, C. Regan, Deleone. CS — Jenkins.
IP H R ER BB SO
Walsh Jesuit
Shoaff (W, 6-0) 6 6 2 0 1 2
Canzone ⅓ 1 2 2 3 1
Downey (S) ⅔ 0 0 0 0 0
Wadsworth
Deemer (L, 5-1) 4⅔ 4 3 1 3 4
Byers 2⅓ 4 2 2 0 1
HBP — by Deemer (Canzone, Mendenhall, Deleone). WP — Deemer.
Tuesday
Wadsworth 7, Brecksville 0
Hudson Division I District Semifinal
Brecksville (21-6) Wadsworth (27-0)
AB R H BI AB R H BI
Stringer cf 3 0 0 0 Campbell ss 1 1 0 1
Gilbride rf 3 0 1 0 Houser lf 2 1 1 0
Cody p 3 0 0 0 C.Palidar c 4 1 1 2
Harwood 1b 3 0 1 0 Pennington 3b 4 1 2 2
Cave lf 3 0 0 0 Dennison 2b 2 1 1 1
Stevens ss 3 0 0 0 D.Palidar 1b 4 0 1 1
Schwertle 3b 2 0 1 0 Laikos dh 4 0 3 0
Burnett c 2 0 0 0 Bebout p 3 0 1 0
Raffin 2b 2 0 0 0 Rock rf 1 0 0 0
Birk rf 0 0 0 0 Robinson cf 0 0 0 0
Lallathin pr 0 1 0 0
Looser pr 0 1 0 0
Totals 24 0 3 0 Totals 25 7 10 7
BRECKSVILLE 000 000 0 — 0 3 1
WADSWORTH 401 110 x — 7 10 0
E — Cody. LOB — Brecksville 3, Wadsworth 10. 2B — D. Palidar, Laikos. 3B — Pennington. S — Rock. SF — Dennison, Campbell. SB — Campbell 2, Houser 2. CS — Campbell.
IP H R ER BB SO
Brecksville
Cody (L, 6-1) 4 9 6 6 4 6
Gilbride 2 1 1 1 2 3
Wadsworth
Bebout (W, 9-0) 7 3 0 0 0 10
HBP — by Cody (Bebout). WP — Bebout. PB — C. Palidar 2.
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