Chardon climbing to top of WRC this season

After a rough start to the season, Chardon has won 10 of its last 11 games and leads the Western Reserve Conference with a 8-2 record in league play. Plus, the baseball Top of the Crop.

A 1-6 start to the 2017 season was hardly what Chardon coach Brian Long expected.

The Hilltoppers dropped four of five game at the Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach, S.C., at the end of March, then returned to Ohio for staunch Western Reserve Conference matchups with Mayfield and South.

Chardon figured to compete for the WRC title with a strong foundation on the mound and in the field. While the Hilltoppers, by Long’s estimation, committed six errors per game in their opening games and lost late leads in South Carolina, he reminded his team things were going to turn around, that a run was coming.

Since, Chardon has won 10 of its last 11 games and now leads the WRC with a 8-2 record in league play.

“We knew pitching and defense were going to be our strengths,” Long said. “Once we started turning it around on defense, the ‘Ws’ started coming around.”

Add in some timely hitting and the result is one loss for the Hilltoppers since April 11. In that span, Chardon swept North and picked up wins against South, Mayfield and Kenston to make the Hilltoppers one of the area’s hottest teams lately.

Chardon’s pitchers, led by Perry Bewley, Mason Metz and T.J. Kinkopf, own a 2.47 ERA and have struck out 109 hitters in 119 innings. Bewley, Metz and Kinkopf have won three games apiece this season and give Long faith in his team’s chances to beat any team on any day.

Bewley, a senior shortstop

and pitcher, has been a constant for the Hilltoppers. A career .390 hitter, he led the team in at-bats as a freshman and leads Chardon with a .408 average and 17 RBI this season. On the mound, he has a team-best 1.45 ERA in 29 innings.

Long called Bewley one of the best shortstops he has seen, and said the senior sets the standard for Chardon’s program because “he’s kind of doing what he should do” from a leadership aspect. The Hilltoppers will count on Bewley, who will play baseball at Division II Ashland, even more in the coming postseason weeks.

“He has that much talent,” Long said. “He’s a great player and our conference has a lot of great players, so it’s going to come down to what great player can step up in certain games. We’re really hoping he can come up with that big game on the mound or that big game at the plate and when he does, when he’s on, we’ve got things rolling pretty good.”

Postseason looms

Seemingly as soon as baseball season began, the postseason is already around the corner.

The 2017 state tournament brackets were set at seed meetings this past weekend and sectional play begins on May 8.

Mayfield earned the top seed in the Division I Euclid District bracket. No. 2 Chardon, No. 3 Mentor, No. 4 North, No. 5 South, No. 7 Madison, No. 9 Riverside, No. 10 Brush and No. 11 Euclid make up the rest of the area’s contingent at Euclid. No. 6 Kenston is the lone area representative at Hudson.

In D-II, Lake Catholic is the No. 1 seed in the Jefferson District and Chagrin Falls is No. 1 in the Euclid District. No. 2 Notre DameCathedral Latin, No. 4 Geneva, No. 5 University, No. 7 Perry, No. 9 West Geauga and No. 11 Harvey join the Cougars in Jefferson. No. 8 Benedictine is with the Tigers at Euclid.

Hawken is the No. 2 seed in D-III’s LaBrae District and Kirtland is No. 3 in the Lakewood District. Berkshire, the defending district champion, is fifth in LaBrae and Cardinal No. 9. No. 5 Gilmour, No. 7 Wickliffe, No. 8 Beachwood and No. 9 Villa Angela-St. Joseph round out area teams in the Lakewood District.

In D-IV, Fairport is the No. 3 seed in the Fairport District, joined by No. 7 Newbury.

Scoreboard watching

As expected, the Western Reserve Conference title doesn’t look like it will be decided until the final days of the regular season.

Chardon leads the league table with a 8-2 record, with Mayfield in second at 9-3. North and Kenston are tied for third at 8-3, and South is in the mix at 7-6.

Captains Charities Classic

Eight area teams are slated to play at Classic Park on May 5 and 6 as a part of the 13th Captains Charities Classic, weather pending.

Chagrin Falls and Kenston are scheduled to play at 4 p.m. on May 5 and Mayfield is slated to play Twinsburg in the nightcap at 7 p.m. Fairport and St. John kick off a tripleheader May 6 at 11 a.m. Kirtland and Hawken follow at 2 p.m. before rivals North and South square off at 5 p.m.

According to weather. com, there is a 100 percent chance of rain in Eastlake on May 5.

Tickets cost $6 and proceeds will be shared between participating schools and Captains Charities, the organization’s nonprofit arm.