Avon leaves tournament trail with regional semifinal loss to St. Edward in baseball

GATES MILLS — Avon ran out of miracles Thursday in the Division I regional semifinal. Just when you thought another one was about to take place, St. Edward answered Avon's miraculous three-run fifth inning with a three-run inning of its own in turning back Lorain County's last tournament hope, 6-3, at Figgie Field on the campus of Gilmour Academy. Avon saw its 12-game winning streak halted and finished 17-11 for the year. St. Ed's (19-11) will return to Gilmour Academy today to take on Perrysburg with a trip to next week's Final Four on the line. Two outstanding pitchers, Avon's junior lefty Brody Papay and St. Edward's hard-throwing Max McClellan, nearly matched pitch-for-pitch over the first four innings, with Danny Tome's leadoff home run the only blemish on Papay's line. Papay, fresh off his no-hitter against North Royalton, had allowed only two hits and struck out eight as Avon came to bat in the bottom of the fifth. To that point, McClellan, bound for South Carolina next year, allowed only one baserunner on a two-out walk to Jason Gillespie, and fanned eight. Senior Joey Griffiths started the fifth inning with 2-0 hit to shallow right-center to start Avon on its way to a three run outburst against the unnerved McClellan, who walked Ian Cain on four pitches. "I just tried to get something going," said Griffiths. "After being shut out those first few innings, I went up there with the mindset, 'any way I can, I've got to get on base.' Two great pitchers we faced. I went up there, 'If I hit it, I hit it. If I don't, I don't.' It's baseball." Cole Ropelewski moved both up into scoring position with a perfectly bunt in front of home plate and Robby Sykora delivered the tying run with a sacrifice fly to right field that scored Griffiths and moved Cain to third. Pinch hitter Garret Espey drew a walk and Cain, alertly, and with no hesitation, scored on a wild pitch, with Espey moving to second. Colten Fitch doubled to right-center to score Espey to put Avon in front 3-1. The lead didn't last long. After Papay retired the first batter, Tome ran the count full by fouling off six pitches. Papay hit him on a disputed full-count pitch that sounded as though the ball struck Tome's bat. After an umpire conference, however, Tome was awarded first base. "One thing about St. Edward is they're very aggressive," Papay said. "Especially their leadoff batter (Tome) who got me on a nine-, 10-pitch count. He kept fouling everything off." "We're in position late in the game," said St. Edward coach Jimmy Clark. "We battled. Our guys put up some great at-bats but make no mistake about it, (Papay's) an outstanding pitcher." Brayden Page shot a grounder through the hole at short and Grant Lashutka singled to bring in Tome. Karlo Hepp drove in Page with a sacrifice fly and Lashutka scored on a wild pitch, and St. Ed's got the lead back, 4-3. St. Edward added two more in the top of the seventh on just one hit and four walks. Avon tried its best to pull out the game against huge odds. Down 6-3 going to the bottom of the seventh, pinch hitter Owen Melzer opened the inning by getting hit by a pitch and Robby Sykora followed by beating out a roller to second to bring the tying run to the plate. Henry Sieby, in relief of McClellan, managed to strike out Colten Fitch looking at a borderline strike on a 2-2 count. Ryan Sudbrook swung and missed on a full count for the second out and Gillespie worked another walk on a full count to load the bases for Andrew Falasco, who went down swinging. "We want to be relentless no matter what the score," said Avon coach Pat Scholla. "It's what we've done all year. I'm proud of every single one of them." "It's tough," said Griffiths. "But, it's the team we created. However many games, however long that streak was to close out the season, it's the team we created over those games. We're not going to go down without a fight." Contact Tim Gebhardt at 329-7135 or at timothygeb@msn.com. St. Edward 6, Avon 3 St. Edward Avon ab r h bi ab r h bi Tome 2 2 1 2 Fitch 4 0 1 1 Page 3 1 1 0 Sudbrook 3 0 0 0 Lashutka 3 1 1 2 Gillespie 2 0 0 0 Hepp 3 0 0 1 Falasco 3 0 0 0 Laux 3 0 0 0 Griffiths 3 0 1 0 Mahle 2 0 1 0 Jackson 0 1 0 0 Lucas 3 0 1 0 Cain 2 1 1 0 Varglotti 0 1 0 0 Ropelewski 2 0 0 0 Barker 2 1 0 0 Crell 1 0 0 0 Waters 2 0 0 0 Espey 0 1 0 0 Melzer 0 0 0 0 Sykora 2 0 1 1 Totals 23 6 5 5 Totals 22 3 4 2 St. Edward 100 003 2 —6 5 1 Avon 000 030 0 —3 4 1 2B—Lucas, Fitch, Cain. HR—Tome. SAC—Ropelewski. SF—Hepp, Tome. SB—Barker, Waters, Melzer, Sykora. CS—Lucas, Falasco. E—Lashutka, Avon. LOB—St. Edward 4, Avon 7. IP H R ER BB SO St. Edward McClellan 4 2/3 2 3 3 4 8 Sieby (W) 2 1/3 2 0 0 2 5 Avon Papay (L,5-2) 6 1/3 5 5 3 1 10 Petro 0 0 1 1 2 0 Egger 2/3 0 0 0 2 0 HBP—Tome (by Papay), Melzer (by Sieby). WP—Papay, McClellen.