The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Mentor rolls into regional play
Cardinals rout Mayfield to win D-I district championship
The Mentor baseball team huddled outside its dugout before the Cardinals played Mayfield for the Euclid District title on May 19.
In the center, the team’s uppperclassmen encouraged their teammates to “do something we haven’t done before.”
Technically, seniors Nathan Birtley and Tommy Noll were already
district champions — they were varsity reserves when the Cardinals claimed the district crown in 2014.
But this time, in tandem with Nick Smith, Matt Detering, Tommy Klepcyk and others, Birtley and Noll wanted to win one they could truly call their own.
From the preseason through the losing record Mentor carried into this month, Birtley and Noll continued to remind the Cardinals they’d been champions before and expected to be again.
“I think that gave them the motivation,” Birtley said.
“Then we had a couple other players like Nick Smith and Klepcyk come in and say, ‘Yeah, let’s do this, I don’t want to leave here without something on our neck.’”
Birtley’s play on May 19 rose above the standard he and his classmates set for their younger teammates. He collected four hits and drove in three runs to lead Mentor’s offensive eruption in a 14-0 win over Mayfield.
Mentor took a 3-0 lead in the first when Noll’s double to right-center scored Smith and Birtley. Noll scored on a double-steal, swiping home plate when Mayfield catcher Jack Hollinshead attempted to throw Detering out at second. Klepcyk scored on an error for a 4-0 lead after two.
The Cardinals (17-9) then sent 15 hitters to the plate in third and scored 10 runs. Mentor played stationto-station with a procession of singles and basesloaded walks. Mayfield’s relief corps struggled to find the strike zone and the Cardinals’ experienced, patient hitters willingly accepted free passes — an approach well-honed by Birtley, Noll, Smith, Detering and Klepcyk.
The district championship is Haase’s first as Mentor’s coach. He took over when his current seniors were rising sophomores.
“They’re all capable of doing big things,” Haase said. “Right now, they just keep seeming to step up and step up. They just battle, just a gritty group of kids.”
Mentor junior Squire Chapman pitched five shutout innings. When the Cardinals snatched momentum in the first inning, Chapman cemented it in their favor with a perfect eight-pitch first.
Chapman struggled when Mayfield (20-7) beat Mentor on April 14. He lasted three innings as he frequently fell behind hitters. More than a month later, Chapman pumped first-pitch strikes into the zone to start many at-bats and control sequences against hitters.
“Coming out and getting on people early is something we’ve talked about,” Haase said. “It deflates the other team. He came out today and didn’t want to be denied.”
Mentor plays Aurora in a Canton regional semifinal at 2 p.m. on May 25 at Thurman Munson Stadium.
The loss caps a 20win season for Mayfield in coach D.J. Rapposelli’s first year. Michael Canganelli set a school record with 32 stolen bases and pitcher Dom DiPippo tied the Wildcats single-season mark with an 8-0 campaign.
Rapposelli lamented a few errors in the opening innings which created extra at-bats for Mentor, a team he says is hot at the right time. He credited his own group of 10 seniors, many of whom will play college baseball, and looks forward to next season with DiPippo and shortstop Joe Trivison leading a returning core.
The lesson he carries out of year one is spreading as much opportunity to as many players as he can. Canganelli began the season as the No. 9-hitter before moving to the leadoff spot, and DiPippo was projected as the team’s third or fourth starter.
“The guys that were on the mound were the guys that were producing,” Rapposelli said.
“They carried us, a couple of those guys carried us. (We’ve) just got to keep developing kids.”