High school baseball: Landon Wolf delivers wild but huge inside-the-park home run in state semifinal win over New Albany

CANTON — Amherst junior first baseman Landon Wolf hit more home runs and drove in more runs than any of his teammates this year. None of them were as big or in a circumstance quite like his two-run inside-the-park home run in the first inning of the Comets' 3-2 extra-inning win over New Albany in the Division II state semifinals Friday at Thurman Munson Memorial Stadium. Wolf came up with two outs and Caleb Melendez on first base in the top of the first. He hit a line drive to the alley that Eagles right fielder Quinn Blaney tracked down and momentarily had in his glove for what looked like the third out of the inning. But before Blaney could secure the ball, he collided with center fielder Van Routhier and fell to the ground allowing the ball to drop to the warning track turf and chaos to ensue. "I saw the ball go in his glove so I was slowing Caleb up but when I saw the right fielder hit the ground I saw the ball bounce up so I started yelling, 'Let's go,'" said Amherst coach Matt Rositano, who was coaching third base. "I still wasn't sure what happened but none of the umpires signaled out. Their defense kind of stopped but I'm telling Landon 'let's go.' We wanted to keep playing and then let the umpires sort it out." After Melendez and Wolf scored all four umpires met between first and second base and determined that Blaney never secured the catch and both Amherst runs scored to give the Comets a 2-0 lead. They were the only runs Amherst scored until the 10th inning. The home run was Wolf's sixth of the year and he added to his school-record RBI total with Nos. 53 and 54. "He threw me a pitch up the middle, right where I wanted it, and I knew I hit it hard," Wolf said. "I never looked at the ball, I just kept running until someone told me to stop because that's what our coaches teach us. Even though everyone else thought the ball was caught, here we are. This is just insane." Melendez also credited the training he's received from his coaches with helping him stay focused in such an unusual situation. "I'm coming to third and coach Roz is like, 'You're up, you're up," and I'm jogging it home like the inning is over," Melendez said. "Then I looked in the dugout and everyone was waving me to score and I was like, 'What just happened?'" "Our team thing is if you're out you always touch the next base no matter what," Melendez said. "That was going through my mind and then when I looked up I thought, 'Thank God I touched the next base.'" It was Wolf's second home run of the postseason. He also hit one in the Comets' dramatic 6-5 district final win over Painesville Riverside. "There were no thoughts in my head when I crossed home plate," Wolf said. "My teammates came out and greeted me. It was the greatest feeling ever." Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.