Canfield rallies by Hubbard in extras
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STRUTHERS -- The pain of a great game, especially in the postseason, is that someone has to lose.
Canfield and Hubbard had a true heavyweight faceoff on Monday to punch their ticket to the district finals, but it was the Cardinals who advance, scoring a walkoff in the bottom of the eighth to take down Hubbard, 8-7.
"No team deserved to lose today," Canfield coach Gary Knittle said. "I talked to their coaching staff, and Braydon Songer and Tyler Wright, the two that threw for them. I know the families. The first thing I did was go over and I gave them both a hug because they didn’t deserve (to lose). At the same time, we kept battling, we put ourselves in situations and every year come tournament time, we talk and preach that you need a little luck.
"Maybe this year is our year. We needed that luck. But take a look at the scoreboard. I mean, both teams competed back and forth. We took the lead, they came back, back and forth, back and forth. They had us a couple of times and we just had the will to win and luck was on our side."
Everytime things were looking to shift in favor of one team, the other would come with some answer in response. Neither team held momentum for more than an inning.
There were a few points where Canfield was in position to take a stranglehold on the game, but each time, Hubbard had a response.
No lead was safe in this game, and it very well could have extended into the night.
At the end, it came down to freshman pitcher Will Murphy, who helped ice the game.
"It’s a shame that somebody had to lose," Knittle reiterated. "We could probably could have went another 10 innings and it probably would have been the same score. Our guys went to a freshman at the end (on the mound), Will Murphy, and he did exactly what we needed to do there other than obviously the fastball that allowed the run to come in. He did his job, too many walks, but you know for freshmen couldn’t be happier for him."
Hubbard’s season ends at 17-12.
"We’re resilient, we never fold, we played as hard as we can possibly play, and I can never fault the effort," Hubbard coach John Schiraldi said. "We battled the whole game like we did all season. Sometimes things go your way. And today it didn’t.
"We had a lot of nail biters in games like that (this year.) There were a couple of times in the season where we went on stretches where we weren’t playing very well and a lot of people probably left us for dead or thought we wouldn’t get to where we were, and we were a play away from going to the district title game in back to back years. I’m proud of them. Obviously, it’s not the way you want it to end but I’m proud of the effort.
Canfield (19-6) has revenge on its mind for Wednesday’s Division II, Struthers District title game, as the Cardinals take on Ursuline.
The teams met earlier in the season, with the Irish winning 7-4.
"They’re a well-coached team," Knittle said. "They beat us earlier this year and we’ve got a little payback (in mind). And it’s good to see the two local teams that will be fighting it out on Wednesday."
Start time is set for 5 p.m. at Cene Park.
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