Recordpub.com - Ravenna sends three teams to regional tournament

By Chuck Condley

Record-Courier staff writer

Three Ravenna teams captured Hot Stove district titles on Sunday at the Ravenna Tournament at Volunteer Park.

The first team to qualify for next weekend’s regional tournament at Champion were the Ravenna Braves with a 9-2 win over Alliance Stanley Steemer in F League.

The unbeaten Ravenna Mets G League squad held on for a 13-11 win over the Greentown Tigers, while the H League Mets outslugged the Lake Nationals 13-9.

F LEAGUE

Ravenna Braves 9,

Alliance Stanley Steemer 2

The Braves got six innings of shutout pitching from Dillon Gillespie and home runs from Kyle Spellman and Kyle Kornbau to take the title.

Ravenna jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Trevin Knight drew a one-out walk and rode home on Spellman’s long blast over the left-field fence. Garrett Gerardi followed with a single, stole second, moved to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch.

Alliance put two men on base in the bottom of the first on singles by Dylan Bales and Mike Martinez, but Gillespie got out of the jam by inducing the next batter to pop out to the second baseman.

The Braves added two more in the second as Trei Thomas and Brandon Gros opened the frame with singles and moved up on stolen bases. Spellman brought home one run with a sacrifice fly and then Gros trotted home on a throwing error.

Stanley Steemer pitcher Kyle Johnson settled down to shut out Ravenna over the next two innings, but in the fifth, Kornbau smashed a round-tripper to increase the lead to 6-0.

In the sixth, Thomas opened the frame with a walk, stole second and was bunted to third by Gros. Thomas scored the seventh run on a single by Spellman.

Ravenna made it 9-0 in the top of the seventh as Tyler Bayless singled, stole second and scored on a single by Thomas. Thomas came around to scored on a single by Gros.

Alliance finally got to Gillespie in the bottom of the seventh on a two-run double by Aaron Pucci with nobody out. But Spellman came on in relief for Gillespie and got two strikeouts and a groundout to end the game.

In the other F League title game, Alliance Pizza Hood shut out the Mineva VFW 13-0.

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G LEAGUE

Ravenna Mets 13,

Greentown Tigers 11

The Met rallied from an early 6-0 deficit, built a 13-6 lead, and then held off a seventh-inning rally to advance to the Champion Regional.

Greentown took advantage of some early wildness by the Mets’ starting pitcher and four Ravenna errors to score six times in the top of the first.

Ravenna (20-0) used some daring baserunning to get back in the game until its offense finally came alive.

In the bottom of the first, the Mets scored three runs without benefit of a hit. Walks to Colin Knight, Bailey Cross and Dre’k Brumley loaded the bases. Brumley took a big lead at first and got in a rundown, allowing both Knight and Cross to score, with Brumley winding up at second. Brumley stole third and then broke for the plate, forcing Greentown pitcher Matt Mosnot to balk, scoring Brumley to cut the lead to 6-3.

Brumley came on in relief for Ravenna starter Alex Lewandoski in the first inning and shut down the Tigers through the next three innings.

In the meantime, Ravenna battled back to tie the score in the bottom of the third on singles by Knight and Cross, and doubles by Rylan Notch and Lewandoski.

The Mets took the lead in the fourth with three more runs. An RBI double by Knight, an RBI ground ball, and a solo home run by Brumley gave Ravenna a 9-6 lead.

The Mets added two more tallies in the fifth on singles by Lewandoski and Dakota Krzykowski and a sacrifice fly by Nathan Hathaway.

Hathaway took over on the mound for the Mets and shut out the Tigers over the next two innings.

Ravenna got two more runs in the top of the seventh on a wild pitch and a steal of home by Brumley to push the margin to 13-6.

As it turned out, those two runs proved to be important as Greentown exploded for five runs in the bottom of the seventh on singles by Atticus Forbes, Nathan Miller, Mosnot and Tyler Howell and a double by AJ. O’Reilly.

With a runner on first and just one out, Brumley went back to the mound and struck out the next batter. Knight then relieved Brumley and got the final out on a popup to the shortstop.

Brumley picked up the win, while Knight got the save.

Mogadore Cardinals 22,

Ravenna Ravens 3

The Cards (15-0) advanced to the regional in G League as winning pitcher Brandon Berry drove in five runs with a triple and single.

Matthew Deibel had a double, three singles and had four RBI, and Danny Sentelik chipped in with three singles and four RBI.

Cody Taylor and Mike Lyons had a single each for the Ravens.

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H LEAGUE

Ravenna Mets 13,

Lake Nationals 9

The Mets jumped out to an 11-2 lead after four innings, but the Nationals scored seven runs in the fifth and sixth innings combined to make the game interesting.

Winning pitcher Dean Gray and Derek Cross both hit home runs for Ravenna, while Joey Brode had three hits.

Lake Brewers 13,

Greentown Lions 4

Brandon Reynold picked up the win and also sparked the offense with a home run and three singles as the Brewers captured a district championship.

Joel Francis added a double and three singles, Chase Knoch had a pair of doubles and a single, while Niko Perrin chipped in with three singles for Lake.