Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Poland’s Grady Pitzulo puts a ball in play during the Bulldogs’ regional final contest against Waynedale on Thursday at Massillon.

MASSILLON — The Poland baseball team fought to the bitter end, but the Bulldogs saw their season come to a close at the hands of the defending state champion on Thursday.

Poland had no answer for Apple Creek Waynedale’s Brayden Steiner, who led the Golden Bears on the mound and at the plate, and they handed the Bulldogs a 5-1 defeat in a Division V regional final at Massillon.

“They never gave up all year. They worked hard, and we got pretty damn far. Not what we wanted to do, but we got pretty far,” Poland head coach Rich Murray said of his team. “I appreciate everything, all their hard work. They’ve been so much fun to be around.”

Steiner opened the game with a leadoff triple that eventually resulted in an RBI groundout from Cam Miller to open the scoring for Waynedale in the first inning.

Bulldogs starter Owen McKenzie began to settle in from there, however, and he worked through four straight scoreless innings to keep Poland in the game. McKenzie finished with seven strikeouts and two walks, while giving up five hits in six innings of work.

Poland struggled to get much off Steiner at the plate, as the Bulldogs went down in order in the first, fourth, fifth and seventh innings. McKenzie drew a walk in the second inning, and Gavin Seifert hit a lead-off single in the bottom of the third for Poland’s only base runners through the first five innings.

Steiner finished with 10 strikeouts and one walk, while scattering three hits.

“He was good,” Murray said. “He threw strikes, he threw hard and got his breaking ball over. He dominated us.”

In the sixth inning, the Golden Bears gave Steiner three insurance runs to close out the game.

He led off the inning with another base hit, and Miller followed with a double that resulted in his second RBI of the evening to make it 2-0 Waynedale. After a walk and a hit loaded the bases, Brock Reifsnyder was hit by McKenzie’s pitch, which resulted in another run scoring.

Collin McGlothlin added an RBI on a fielder’s choice to make it 4-0 heading into the bottom of the frame.

“They hit the ball in the sixth inning. We made a couple errors, and four is tough, especially against a kid pitching like that,” Murray said. “He threw really well. We were in it; we just had to put up another zero for them and get something going. But we didn’t hit it off him real good all day.”

Poland’s bats showed some life after that. Carmine Tukalo reached on an error before Aiden Perry and Zach Morantis had back-to-back hits off Steiner that scored the Bulldogs’ only run of the game. Waynedale closed out the inning with a double play to see off the threat.

In the final inning, the Golden Bears added one more run on an RBI fielder’s choice by Jordan Miller before Steiner took down the Bulldogs in order to seal the victory.

Waynedale now heads back to the state semifinals next week, as it looks to defend its state title and capture its third state championship in the last four years.

As Poland finishes the season 19-7, the Bulldogs’ six seniors leave behind a legacy of success.

This year, they won the Northeast 8 Conference title, added a district championship to the program’s trophy case and finished as regional runner-up in Division V, Region 17.

“They set the tone for everything,” Murray said. “The younger kids look up to them, and they did it the right way for four years. They all worked their butts off. Everybody in there is working their butts off, but they set the tone for how it should be in practice, games and all that.

“We had a good run, it just didn’t work out for us today.”