Hot Stove baseball: Grafton Midview Milano Monuments steals the deal, wins Class HH county championship with swipe of home

WELLINGTON — When Mother Nature interrupted the All-Grafton Midview Class F final, the youngest Grafton players stepped up to steal the show. David Flack's steal of home in the fifth inning provided the only run as Grafton Midview Milano Monuments defeated Fairview Park 1-0 in the Class HH (age 9) Lorain County Hot Stove Championship game Wednesday night at a rain-soaked Wellington Community Park. Pitchers Reid Lawrence and Holden Rozanski each tossed three shutout innings for Milano Monuments, which improved to 17-2. "It was nice that coach trusted me to start the game today even though he had his son there. It felt good," said Lawrence, who struck out seven in three innings. Flack led off the fifth with a walk and advanced on a throwing error before stealing the win. "I didn't believe that would be the only run, I thought some other people would score," Flack said. "When I got on first I just wanted to try to get to the other bases as fast as I could. When I got home it didn't just feel great, it felt awesome." A light mist turned into a steady downpour as the games progressed but that didn't bother Rozanski when he came on to pitch in the fourth inning. "Coming in to pitch in a 0-0 game I was a little nervous," Rozanski said. "The ball was slippery and it was hard to grip on to, I just had to focus." Milano Monuments has won two of the three meetings between the teams this season. With both teams still alive in the regional tournament there's a chance they could meet one more time in Alliance at the state tournament. "We have to keep our emotions in check and we have to work on hitting and pitching," Rozanski said when asked about the team's chances to win a state championship. Milano Monuments coach Ryan Rieth was all smiles after handing out the championships medals to his players. "It came down to pitching. Reid and Holden went out there, they were our horses all season long and they went out and pitched great," Rieth said. "It didn't rain all day then it started right before game time but our boys have been practicing since February so they were ready." The Class F (ages 13-14) Maniacs and Mavericks will have to wait for another day to finish their battle for community and county supremacy. The Maniacs had just taken a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning when slick conditions forced the umpires to suspend play. Their game and the Class G championship game between the Elyria Dawgs and Firelands will be played in Wellington next Wednesday. Nathan Sooy's triple drove in Josiah Bennett to get the Maniacs on the board in the second inning. Hunter Dingess and Charlie Bessey also drove in runs for the Maniacs, who entered the game with a 19-1 record. Noah Rivera drove in Max Powell with the first Mavericks run in the first inning. Graham Lance had a fourth-inning RBI single for their other run. Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.