Blue Devils topple Cards 15-0

May 7—COCHRANTON — Cambridge Springs dominated Cochranton to the tune of a 15-0 win in Monday's Region 3 battle at Cochranton.

After three up, three down for both teams in the opening inning, the Blue Devils went to work. Cambridge plated eight runs in the second inning and took control of the game.

Brett Kania opened the inning with a double to right field. He was promptly brought home by a Matthew Ross single. Singles from Quinn Simmerman, Alex Doubet, Josh Gorton and a double from Ross helped the Devils run up the score. Simmerman and Tristen Mazzadra scored on passed balls while three walks allowed the Devils to get plenty of base runners.

Aided by a couple of make-able plays not made by Cochranton's defense in the inning, and the second was a microcosm of the entire game.

"We know we have four games left and we keep talking about peaking at the right time and having everything go our way," Cambridge Springs head coach Eugene Pabon said. "That's exactly what happened today."

Cambridge added two more runs in the top of the third. Owen Riley reached first base on an error and that same error scored Doubet from third. Parker Schmidt scored on an RBI single from Josh Gorton to make it a ten-run lead.

Defensively, Kania kept the Cardinals at bay. The sophomore allowed one hit and struck out seven batters in four innings. In the bottom of the fourth with the bases loaded and only one out, Kania worked his way into a strikeout and a ground out to keep the shutout alive.

"First of all you have to give Cambridge a lot of credit. Kania came out and threw strikes and pounded the strike zone. He found his way and battled through," Cochranton head coach Jarod Morrison said. "The big difference was they came up with timely hits and we didn't. We barreled up a few balls, but all in all we didn't put everything together and we didn't play a clean game defensively."

The Blue Devils out-hit Cochranton 12-2 and committed no errors, to the Cards' three.

Cambridge added three runs in the top of the fifth inning to extend the lead to 15 runs. In the bottom of the fifth, relief pitcher Quinn Simmerman needed just five pitches to close the game. After a pop out and a single, third baseman Owen Riley caught a liner and fired the ball to first base for a double play.

"Brett is still working his way back from injury. You can tell as the game moved on he gets fatigued, but he is working to get back to full strength," Pabon said. "That heads up play by Owen Riley at third base, he said the play went through his head before it happened, so he was ready to go to make that throw to first."

Cambridge got two doubles from Ross and one double from Riley, Kania and Parker Schmidt. Josh Gorton, Kania and Ross each had multiple hits. Ross finished with five RBIs and Gorton had three.

The Blue Devils are 6-8 overall and 6-7 in region play. Cambridge is scheduled to host Eisenhower on Wednesday.

Cochranton got one hit each from Bradyn Burnette and Isaiah Long. Burnette, Andrew Albert and Ben Field combined to strikeout five batters on the mound.

The Cardinals are 5-8 overall and in Region 3. They've lost six straight games and are set to host West Middlesex today for a non-region matchup.

There is about two weeks left until the playoffs kick off. Both the Cardinals and the Blue Devils are on track to qualify and could see each other a third time.

"I think the postseason needs to be on the back of our minds for now. We need to get things turned around and get back to the winning ways," Morrison said. "We need to get back to doing things we did at the beginning of the year when we were successful, which is fielding the ball and making good contact. If we do those things we can take it game by game and pitch by pitch and we'll be in a good position to be successful."

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Cambridge Springs (15)

(AB-R-H-BI) P. Gorton 2-2-0-0, Riley 4-1-1-2, J. Gorton 3-2-2-3, Kania 3-0-2-1, Ross 4-1-3-5, Simmerman 4-1-1-0, Mazzadra 3-1-1-0, Doubet 4-2-1-1, Schmidt 3-2-1-0. Totals 30-15-12-12.

Cochranton (0)

(AB-R-H-BI) Carroll 3-0-0-0, Foulk 2-0-0-0, Burnette 2-0-1-0, Long 3-0-1-0, Field 1-0-0-0, Mattocks 1-0-0-0, Albert 1-0-0-0, Hoban 1-0-0-0, Goodge 2-0-0-0. Totals 16-0-2-0.

Cambridge Springs 082 05x x — 15 12 0

Cochranton 000 00x x — 0 2 3

BATTING

2B: CS — Ross 2, Kania, Riley, Schmidt.

PITCHING

(IP-H-R-ER-SO-BB) CS — Kania 4-1-0-0-7-6, Simmerman 1-1-0-0-0-0; C — Burnette 1.2-6-8-8-2-3, Albert 2.1-4-5-2-2-1, Field 1-2-2-2-1-1.

Alex Topor can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at atopor@meadvilletribune.com.