After two heavy rainstorms postponed much of the opening-day action, the last of the semifinalists for the Lorain County Hot Stove district tournament were determined Wednesday.
District semifinals for Classes H, G and F are scheduled to begin Saturday, with the district championship games set to be played Sunday. In addition, seven opening-round regional games for Class EE are scheduled for this weekend, four on Saturday and another three on Sunday.
District champions advance to the following weekend’s regional tournament, and regional champions in the four classes earn berths in this year’s state Final Four at Butler-Rodman Park in Alliance on Aug. 2-3.
In Wednesday’s Class G game between North Olmsted Robek’s and Grafton Unicorn, Robek’s took advantage of dropped third strikes to pull out a 7-6 win.
“I was very nervous in that bottom of the sixth inning,” said Robek’s manager Dave Cooney. “I knew that we were playing a very good team and a lucky break might help us win.”
North Olmsted pitcher Ben Kurcsak struck out the first two Unicorn batters in the seventh before he cleanly fielded a ground ball and threw to first for the third out. With that, Kurcsak and his teammates earned a spot in Saturday’s district semifinal against the North Ridgeville Rockers at Penfield at 1 p.m.
“That was a really nice play to end the game,” Cooney said. “Our pitchers threw strikes, and the top of our batting order put their bats on the ball really well in this game.”
Kurcsak had a triple and two singles, while Jacob Boehm had three singles and scored a run. Dan Krull also had three singles, walked once and scored three runs. Anthony Tomusko added a single, walked twice and scored one run.
Grafton batters managed only two singles but utilized timely base running and fielder’s choices to advance and score their runs.

Raptors sting Church Street

The Medina Raptors put six runs up on the board in the bottom of the first inning as they rolled to an 11-6 win over Keystone Church Street Bar & Grille in Class H action.
Nikolas Pelligrino, a lefty, unloaded an inside-the-park home run to right field in the bottom of the third to increase the winners’ lead to 7-0.
After Church Street cut Medina’s lead in half (8-4) in the top of the fifth, the Raptors scored their final three runs in the bottom of the inning. Keystone scored twice in the sixth but couldn’t come up with anything in the seventh to keep its tournament hopes alive.
Sean Kerns had two singles and scored two runs for the Raptors, while Joe Kerrigan also had two singles. Keystone’s four singles were spread among four different players.

Valley City holds off Titans

Valley City Dick’s Sporting Goods scored two runs each in the fifth and sixth inning to ensure its 10-7 win over the Sheffield Lake Titans in a Class F game.
The winners led 6-2 after three innings before the Titans scored twice in the top of the fifth and added two in the sixth and one in the seventh to make things interesting.
Nico Galizio hit two doubles and had a single for Valley City, and Alex Stanley, Nick Duliba and Styles Harvey hit doubles. Stanley, Tom Metheny and Mike Millward each scored two runs for Valley City.
Matt Joris hit a double for the Titans, while Chris Leonhardt had two singles.

WEDNESDAY’S SCORES

CLASS H (AGES 9-10)
Medina Raptors 11, Keystone Church Street Bar & Grille 6
CLASS G (AGES 11-12)
North Olmsted Robek’s 7, Grafton Unicorn 6
CLASS F (AGES 13-14)
Valley City Dick’s Sporting Goods 10, Sheffield Lake Titans 7 

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