Dover baseball can't pull off late rally against Canton Central Catholic

DOVER — Dover’s baseball team fell behind by five runs but staged an impressive seventh-inning rally that came up just short as the Crimson Tornadoes dropped a 6-5 decision to Canton Central Catholic at Dover City Park on Monday evening.

With the setback, Dover is now 12-10, while Central, which has won seven of its past eight games, improved to 11-8.

“Credit to them, but we’ve struggled offensively most of the year,” Dover coach Jeff Fondriest said. “We’ve got to get that corrected in the next few games so we can make a little tournament run.”

Central right-hander Austin Coy went six strong innings to get the pitching win. He struck out eight and walked two.

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“Coy does a really good job with his pitches, he doesn’t want to give anything to them,” Canton Central Catholic coach Dan Massarelli said.

“Their starter did a really nice job, he didn’t walk many guys," Fondriest said. “We had trouble for six innings really getting anything going.”

Dover’s Colin Bruno absorbed the pitching setback as he worked the first 4⅔ innings, giving up six runs on nine hits. Mason Grewell came on in relief in the fifth and worked a scoreless 2⅓ innings.

“We played good defense tonight, but we didn’t spot the ball very well and kept the ball up a little bit,” Fondriest said.

Pacing Dover’s eight-hit attack was Jonah Marks with two singles and two RBIs, Liam Mast with a double and an RBI walk, and Ethan Kellicker and Hunter Edwards with RBI singles.

Leading Central’s 10-hit performance was Jimmy Kane, who was 4 for 4 at the plate with two doubles, two singles and three RBIs. Teammate Noah Berbari added a two-run home run and Nick Hilton had a double.

Central jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the third inning, with the big blow being a two-run home run over the right-field fence by Berbari, along with an RBI single by Coy.

The visitors upped their advantage to 5-0 in the top of the third when Kane stepped to the plate and laced a two-RBI double to left. The Crusaders added to their advantage in the fifth when Kane had an RBI single to center, making it 6-0.

“It’s tough when you go six innings and don’t have much activity on the bases,” Fondriest said. “We’ve got to get that fixed. Defensively we were fine, if we can keep that and just find a little offense, we’ll be OK.”

Dover got on the board against Coy in the bottom of the sixth. It started when Mast ripped a double to left center, moved up on Kellicker's sacrifice fly and scored when Marks beat out an infield single, cutting the deficit to 6-1.

Central turned to pitcher in Nick Luchitz in the bottom of the seventh. The Tornadoes responded by quickly loading the bases on two walks and a single by Zane Conner. Mast drew a bases-loaded walk to force in a run and cut the deficit to 6-2, with the bases still loaded.

Central then opted to bring in Berbari to pitch and Dover’s Kellicker greeted him with an RBI single to left, followed by an RBI on a force out off the bat of Edwards, making it 6-4. Marks then beat out an infield single as the hosts pulled within 6-5 with two outs. But Berbari got a ground ball out as the Crusaders escaped with the one-run win.

‘’We were resilient and we hung in there, we just need to find a way to score earlier in the game,” Fondriest said. “If it’s a four-run game going into the seventh instead of five, then we give ourselves a shot.”

“Berbs is very good when it comes to putting himself in pressure situations,” Massarelli said. “He knows when to execute and get the job done.”

Dover is back in action Thursday when the Tornadoes travel to Massillon for a rematch with the Tigers.

“They beat us earlier in the year and we’re going to have to go up there and play really well to come out with a win,” Fondriest said.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Dover baseball can't keep pace with Canton Central Catholic