Best-of-7 men’s softball finals tied at 2

The Canton Junction softball team is giving Hannington’s all it can handle as the teams entered this week tied 2-2 in the Canton Men’s Softball League’s best-of-seven championship series.

Games were scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, and the seventh and final game, if necessary, was scheduled for Thursday (tonight) at 6:15 p.m. at Devoll Field.

The series started with Junction ending Hannington’s undefeated streak with a 19-11 win on August 25. Junction then took a commanding series lead with a 10-5 win in game two, but Hannington’s evened the series with a convincing 18-3 win in game three and a 12-7 extra innings victory in game four.

Junction Manager Nick Lance said in a series like this, defense and hitting are the keys to winning. “You’re either playing both sides flawlessly or you walk away from the field that night with a loss,” he said.

“We never expected this to be easy,” added Lance. “Hannington’s is a team that has a roster of 15 solid players, who thus far cumulatively have lost three games in two seasons. Fortunately, two of those three were in this series against us.”

Lance made no excuses for the game-three defeat, saying, “If you only put up three runs, you are not going to beat anybody. They caught us sleeping a few times and capitalized on it with extra bases. Overall, they outplayed us in every way.”

In the fourth game, Lance was satisfied with the team’s performance but was unhappy with the officiating. He added that the fans have been great and that the players “intend to continue to give people games worth watching.”

After nine playoff games, Hannington’s Mike White leads the team with a batting average of .667, followed by Bryan Holtzman with a .643 average to go with two homeruns and eight RBIs. Teammate Anthony Falco is batting .593 with two homeruns and 11 RBIs. Other top hitters include A.J. Nichols (.636 average), Mike Devoll (.538, 11 runs) and Tom Wood (.538).

Devoll, who also coaches the team, said, “This is a very competitive, very good series. They play very good defense and the top of their order has hit well. I have a feeling this will go to a seventh game. It is a fairly matched final series.”

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Posted by Mike Berger on Sep 9 2010. Filed under Beyond CHS, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.