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Canfield takes down Poland in “Battle of 224” to capture title

Staff photo/Neel Madhavan. The Canfield softball team lifts the Division II Jefferson district trophy after beating rival Poland 4-0 Thursday afternoon at YSU Softball Complex.

YOUNGSTOWN — At the beginning of the season, Canfield did not look like a team that would end up challenging for a district title.

Head coach Joe Angelo would be the first to admit it. The cold, wet weather wreaked havoc on the preseason practice schedule and the first half of the regular season. As a result, it forced the Cardinals to largely practice indoors and the team stumbled out to a 2-4 start to open the season.

“At the beginning of the season, there weren’t many practices,” Angelo said. “It’s the worst spring weather-wise I think we’ve had for a long time. So when the season started, we might have been outside twice and we kind of played that way. At the beginning, we were working some of the bugs out and knocking some of the rust off.”

Since then, however, the Cardinals have won 14 of their last 15 games, with the lone loss during that stretch coming to Poland at home.

“We were a little hungry since we came off losing to them the last time,” Angelo said. “It figures we’re going to run into them in this format, in this field for the district championship. So I don’t mind that loss coming into today because it made us more hungry.”

So it was only fitting that Canfield would get a chance to avenge that loss in Thursday’s Division II Jefferson district final. In the third installment of the Battle of 224 this season, the Cardinals were dominant in a decisive 4-0 win over the Bulldogs to win the district championship at the YSU Softball Complex.

“We worked really hard this season, so to have our hard work pay off, it shows the (younger) girls that hard work (pays off) and just makes everything so much better,” said senior Madison Angelo.

The Cardinals have come a long way since the preseason, as the team has improved in every facet of the game along the way — to the point where they’ve been one of the hottest teams in the Mahoning Valley at just the right time of the year.

“We’re a well-rounded team and we’ve worked hard on our offense and defense,” Madison said. “Everyone came out tonight and knew what their roles were and knew how to play their game. I think that was a big part of how we won.”

Despite finishing with seven hits against Poland ace Katie McDonald, Canfield made each of them count — finishing with four doubles, a triple and a solo home run.

Madison was responsible for two of Canfield’s runs on her own with the solo bomb in the fourth inning and an RBI double in the sixth inning.

“I try to see basketballs at the plate — you have to come up to the plate knowing what you’re going to hit,” Madison said. “We’ve already faced (McDonald) twice already this year, so I kind of knew what I was going up there looking for and I knew what pitches I liked.”

Senior Jackie Kinnick hit the triple, which ended up turning into a run after a throwing error at third allowed her to steal home. Junior Gianna Pannunzio finished with two doubles and an RBI.

In the circle, sophomore Malena Toth continued the heater she’s been on in the second half of the season. She finished with 13 strikeouts and no walks in a complete game shutout.

Poland coach Jim Serich credited Toth’s performance for being the reason why the Bulldogs struggled at the plate and finished with just three hits.

“I told them before, if you don’t put a number up on that board, you don’t give yourself a chance,” Serich said. “We ran into a buzzsaw. (Toth) threw so well tonight and kept us off balance. We really didn’t drive anything off her. She kept moving in and out and up and down — I tip my hat off to (Toth).”

For Poland, despite losing three seniors to graduation who won a combined 63 games in three seasons of competition, the future is bright.

“We got six coming back and we got (McDonald) in the circle, (Sophia D’Angelo) behind the plate and Mary (Brant) at shortstop, so we’re pretty strong up the middle. We’ll get after it starting in January and we’ll see if we can end up in the same spot next year.”

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