Hot-hitting Hornets advance in Division III

Kirtland coach Luke Smrdel figured an inexperienced Hornets team would endure some growing pains in 2018. The peaks and valleys of Kirtland’s season, as Smrdel called them, may be best represented by the 11-11 record the Hornets carried into the postseason.

After a 10-0 victory against Beachwood in a Division III Lakewood District sectional final at Kirtland May 10, Smrdel thinks his team is peaking at the appropriate time, and no one is playing better than senior catcher Mike Zeuli.

Zeuli hit .643 last week and went 4-for-4 with a double and three RBI in Kirtland’s postseason opener.

“I’ve just tried to not do too much,” Zeuli said. “I’m just trying to put the ball in play and hit hard line drives. It’s been working for me lately.”

Through 23 games, Zeuli’s batted a team-high .521 and leads the Hornets with 34 RBI. Alongside leadoff man Joey Torok, Zeuli’s been a constant Smrdel relied on while younger teammates gained experience.

A hot streak from Kirtland’s No. 3 hitter has Smrdel confident in the Hornets’ chances headed to next week’s district round.

“You’ve got to get hot at the right time,” Smrdel said. “He’s hot at the right time and he’s our guy in the order.”

Kirtland next plays Wellington in a D-III Lakewood District semifinal May 16 at Lakewood.

The Hornets scored the game’s first run in familiar fashion. Torok reached base, stole second and scored on Zeuli’s RBI single. Luke Potosky’s RBI groundout scored Zeuli for a 2-0 Kirtland lead.

Torok finished 1-for-3, was hit by a pitch, stole three bases and scored twice.

“It’s awesome to have a threat like that early in the order,” Smrdel said. “It mixes things up. It makes the pitcher think, it’s a dynamic thing we have compared to other teams and it changes the game.”

Vince Liuzzo was hit leading off the second and scored on an error to stretch the Hornets’ edge to 3-0. RBI singles from Seann McGill, Zeuli, Potosky and Mike Alfieri constituted a four-run fourth. Zeuli’s tworun double in the fifth set up Tyler McCrory’s game-ending RBI single in the sixth.

“I think we’re peaking, for sure, right now,” Zeuli said. “We started off a little iffy, in the middle of the season we were playing a little bit under, way below-average baseball. Now we’re picking it up and I’m excited.”

Beachwood’s postseason concluded after the Bison defeated Warrensville Heights, 11-3, in a sectional semifinal May 9. Beachwood put together a fourgame winning streak and won five of seven games headed into the matchup with Kirtland.

Ben Connor went 3-for-3 with a double for the Bison.

Coach Andy Pohl said the theme of his first season at Beachwood was “foundation fundamentals” to help prepare the Bison for the future. Young players gained valuable innings and atbats worth of experience, and Pohl says next season’s theme will be to “tighten the screws” on the work done in 2018. “We’re going to be a little more demanding on these kids and raise the bar a little bit,” Pohl said. “I think they’re ready for that, I don’t think they’d be ready for it in year one, so we’re doing this systematically.”