STRONGSVILLE — Jake Kolcun said he was nervous at the start and at the finish.
You never would’ve known it by his performance.
Kolcun blanked Berea 5-0 Thursday to lift Amherst to its first district championship since 1993. The Comets (20-9) will meet St. Ignatius in the Division I Shelby regional Thursday at 5 p.m.
Kolcun, a junior right-hander, began the season as a reliever and will end it as a district champion — and possibly more. Using a 12-to-6 curveball, he struck out six, allowed four hits and walked one. He allowed two base runners in the second and third innings, but escaped unharmed.
Pretty heady stuff.
“I was real nervous and my teammates told me to settle down,” said Kolcun, whose nerves got to him when he bounced an easy throw to first that would’ve ended the game. “I had big D behind me.”
Kolcun improved to 2-1 on the season with his first high school shutout. He used a big curveball and a hard slider for strikeouts to get out of the early jams, and got a double play on a grounder to shortstop Ryan Rua in the fifth.
“Jake was just fantastic,” Rua said. “He was in tough situations, but didn’t let it bother him.”
Rua went 1-for-2 with a double, a walk, a sacrifice fly and two RBIs. He got the Comets on the board when he sent a curveball into right-center field for a double to score Connor Weir on a hit-and-run in the third inning. Rua made it 2-0 when he scored on an infield error.
“Ryan seems to have a knack for playing big in big games,” coach Al McConihe said.
The Comets made it 5-0 in the fourth inning.
Xavier Bonilla doubled, Larry Schieferstein added one of his two singles and Weir was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out and knock out Berea starter Derrick Paster (5-3). Rua hit a sacrifice fly, Seth Rosario singled in a run and Weir scored on a throwing error.
After that it was just Kolcun and a countdown to regionals. The last time the Comets made it to the Sweet 16, they were ousted by Mentor.
“We’ve talked about regionals since the beginning of the year,” Rua said. “Being a senior, we told the underclassmen that’s what we wanted to get.”
Amherst needed to finish off Brunswick to get a shot at Berea. The Comets led 8-2 when the district semifinal was suspended Wednesday by darkness and hung on for an 8-4 win, as Logan Bruce finished what he started to pick up the victory.
The Braves (18-10) were coming off a draining 12-inning win over Admiral King in the semis. They had beaten the Comets 8-6 and 6-3 in Southwestern Conference play, but couldn’t solve Kolcun.
“What a job,” said coach Mike Draves, whose Braves finished on a 17-3 streak. “He was moving in and out and changing speeds. He kept us off balance all day.”
Contact Scott Petrak at 329-7253 or spetrak@chroniclet.com. 

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