'They put constant pressure on us'

CANTON – It all looked so familiar.In the Division VI state semifinal baseball game at Thurman Munson Memorial Stadium in Canton Saturday, Lake Center Christian beat Elmwood the way the Royals have been taking down opponents all year.In the Tigers' 10-1 win over the Royals, Lake Center Christian forced the issue.It put the ball in play. It aggressively took extra bases. It took advantage of the Royals defensive miscues. It kept turning the lineup over.It was all, frankly, Elmwood like."Our philosophy, 1-through-9 offensively, is just to move the line," said Tigers coach Shane Byler. "Just find a way to get to the next guy. So, whether it's a walk, a hit, an error, whatever, we want to be productive and get to that next guy."It's a style Elmwood's players and their coach Matt Malecha know well."They put constant pressure on us," Malecha said.And it happened every inning. The Tigers scored a run in the first inning and then kept adding on. They put up at least one run – but no more than two – in every frame. "Credit to them, they put the ball in play, hard," Malecha said. "They deserved that win."But Lake Center Christian was also aided by an uncharacteristically sloppy Elmwood defense. The Royals committed five errors in the loss.The first inning was an early indication on how this one would go.Elmwood starting pitcher Landon Snow – who threw a seven-inning no-hitter in the Royals regional semifinal win against Marion Local – fanned the first batter he faced, Grant Coblentz, on three pitches. But Lake Center Christian's Colton Smilek pulled a ball into the left field corner for a double. Snow retired the next hitter on a popup, but then Caleb Shelly reached on an error to put runners at the corners.The Tigers took advantage when Nathan Bryant singled through the left side to score Smilek and give Lake Center Christian a 1-0 advantage.Lake Center Christian added on in the top of the second when Jacob Rainieri led off the inning by reaching first on an error. He took second on a passed ball and scored on a one-out single by Coblentz.Coblentz stole second and made third on a wild pitch. Luke Heckert brought him home on a single up the middle.It was 3-0 Tigers, all on unearned runs. It could have been a bigger deficit, but Elmwood left fielder Zack Gross made a diving catch on a line drive to end the second.The catch was reminiscent of the one Gross made against Marion Local last week, which protected Snow's no-hitter.Malecha said he didn't think Elmwood was intimidated by the state tournament atmosphere."I don't think the moment was too big for us today," he said. "I just don't think we played good baseball."Meanwhile, the Royals offense struggled to get going against Lake Center Christian starter Brayden Myers. Myers walked Aden Alva in the first inning, but then retired the next 11 batters he faced, carrying a no-hitter into the fifth inning."He's a great pitcher and he went out and just pumped strikes, I feel like (he) kept Elmwood off balance," Byler said. "We were able to make plays behind him and he got the job done."Meanwhile, the Tigers continued to add on, pushing across another unearned run in the third. They made it 5-0 in the fourth on an RBI double by Heckert.The tally in the fourth was an earned run, charged to Snow. It was the first earned run he allowed in the game.Lake Center Christian added a pair of earned runs off Snow in the fifth, pushing its lead to 7-0.Snow was pulled for Gross in the top of the sixth.Snow allowed three earned runs on seven hits, walking four and striking out five."Extremely proud of how he pitched in that type of atmosphere," Malecha said. "I thought he was really good early, and I think if we'd made a few more plays...and really, I think offensively, if we could have scored a few more runs early, maybe it would have settled us in a little bit. Unfortunately, that didn't happen."Elmwood ended the shutout in the bottom of the fifth and had its best chance to get back in the game.The Royals' Nico Allen walked on four pitches to start the inning. Then, Marshal Taft laced a ball that fell in front of Tigers' right fielder Nathan Miller.It was Elmwood's first hit, and it had runners on first and second. Myers came back to strike out Aidan Marsh, but then walked Cadyn Stewart to load the bases. With Kason Hammer batting, Myers threw a wild pitch, scoring Allen. Then, he walked Hammer to fill the bases again.But Myers induced Gross to hit a shallow fly to right for the second out. Colton Bradford followed with a sharp bouncer that deflected off Myers' glove to second baseman Chase Klingelhofer. Klingelhofer beat Hammer to second for the force to end the inning.It was 7-1, going to the sixth."I felt like we were one hit away in that inning from putting pressure on them," Malecha said. "We just couldn't get the big hit in that situation, and even throughout the game, I thought if we could just get a few leadoff guys on, we could play to our strengths, which is stealing bases, getting bunts down. We just didn't do that consistently enough, unfortunately."The Tigers added another run in the sixth and two more in the seventh. Myers finished allowing just one hit in seven innings, striking out nine and walking four.Heckert was Lake Center Christian's top hitter, with three hits and three runs batted in.The Royals finished 22-9.Elmwood was making just its second state Final 4 appearance, its first since 2007. The Royals hadn't even won a sectional title since 2016."All 11 of us, including the team manager, we've been together the last four years, really been pushing each other hard," said Bradford, referencing the program's seniors. "This is the best season I've ever had.""The run is something I know none of these kids will ever forget," Malecha said. "Right now, it stinks, but in 20-30 minutes, maybe 40 minutes, I think they'll all agree this was pretty cool, and in a few days, it'll be something we look back on and have a lot of great memories."The Tigers (28-4) sought their first state championship Sunday at against Berlin Hiland at Canal Park in Akron. Berlin Hiland scored two in the bottom of the seventh to defeat the Tigers, 5-4, and win its third consecutive state championship.