Woodridge baseball edges Roosevelt in David Starkey Memorial Classic thriller

KENT — The David Starkey Memorial Classic stands out, first and foremost, for the man it honors.

Starkey was a legendary athlete at Roosevelt, earning Cleveland Plain Dealer Player of the Year honors in baseball in 1991, who became an equally notable driver of youth baseball in Ravenna before he died in 2007.

The invitational has also delivered tremendous baseball year after year.

That was true right down to Saturday's final game, as Roosevelt freshman Teddy Maccarone and Woodridge senior Jacoby Engelhart waged a pitcher's duel with the Bulldogs prevailing 2-0.

"It's an invitation tournament for a reason," Rough Riders coach Mike Haney said. "I think the guys that bring their teams here are guys that I know and believe in and trust and I know what they're doing with their kids mirrors a lot of things that we do."

For Bulldogs coach Dennis Dever, Saturday was equally poignant.

"I really like competing against Kent Roosevelt and have for all the years that Mike's been there and he's a big reason why," Dever said. "So it goes to say that whoever he wants us to play in this tournament, we'll play, but it's always a little more special when it's us versus Kent, which it usually is."

Led by great pitching, Woodridge makes strong strides

Engelhart's performance, tossing 6 1/3 scoreless innings, and that of his teammates made another thing clear:

The Bulldogs are back.

After combining for just 10 wins over the past two years, seven last season and three the year prior, Woodridge already has 14 victories in 2023.

"We've come a long way since my sophomore year and I think we're able to make a run with the pitching we have and the bats we have and the defense we have," Engelhart said. "So it's just a matter of taking every game seriously, keep continuing to grow, just going hard and playing the game."

Watching Engelhart — one of three standout starting pitchers for the Bulldogs — it was easy to see how the program has found success once again. Mixing a fastball in the eighties with a nasty curve, the lanky lefty worked his way around eight walks, including bases-loaded situations in the first and third, to allow just two hits in 6 1/3 scoreless innings.

"I struggle a little bit with confidence so just coming up with confidence, trusting my defense and then obviously the runs scored helped a lot because you get support, you just feel confident on the mound," Engelhart said. "[I was] just trying to battle through it and keep my head straight."

And when Engelhart walked two of the first three batters he faced in the bottom of the seventh, putting the tying run on base, Steven Duffy showcased his own poise on the mound.

After Roosevelt cleanup hitter Scottie Spears dropped a picture-perfect bunt between the mound and third to load the bases with one out, Duffy calmly came back with a strikeout and a pop-up to seal the win.

"He's one of the very few guys that we have where the pressure does not get to him and that's saying a lot," Dever said. "He's that type of young man where he just goes out there and he gives us 110 percent effort, whatever his best effort is, and lets the chips fall where they may."

All of which gave Maccarone a hard-luck loss, as the Rough Riders freshman was plenty impressive himself, tossing a number of change-ups and curves to limit the Bulldogs to two runs in six innings.

Woodridge's only runs came in the fourth, which shortstop Will Schmeltzer led off with a liner into left, his second hit in as many at-bats. Following a sacrifice bunt and a bloop single, Bulldogs centerfielder Tyrus Hartman drove home the game's first run with a line-drive single to the opposite field. The next batter, second baseman Ryan Anderson, added an insurance run with a sacrifice fly.

While Haney could rue the Rough Riders' runners left on base Saturday — 12 overall — it was hard to be too upset on a beautiful day surrounded by friends that paid tribute to another great friend who died far too soon.

"This is 16 years of us now remembering David Starkey," Haney told the crowd before the game. "David Starkey was not only one of my best friends, he was not only one of my teammates, he was an unbelievable father, he was an unbelievable son, and what he did for this program helped put us on the map a little bit."

The 2023 David Starkey Memorial Classic scoreboard:

Roosevelt 13 - Ravenna 3

Stow-Munroe Falls 12 - Cuyahoga Falls 2

Lake 11 - Norton 5

Highland 7 - Field 5

Woodridge 2 - Roosevelt 0

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Woodridge baseball edges Roosevelt at David Starkey Memorial Classic