The Crestwood Red Devils’ baseball team heard enough doom and gloom from the outside after suffering key injuries before the beginning of the season. That’s why the Red Devils are not losing sight of their goal despite losing 5-4 against Chippewa last Friday evening in Doylestown.
“We put pressure on ourselves on defense and we committed three errors. We committed a couple of mental errors that don’t show up on the books but still yielded runs so that was probably our biggest takeaway,” said Coach Chris Stanley.
On Friday, after mounting an early 4-1 lead in the early innings, the Chipps rallied against the Red Devils (7-6, 7-1). Chippewa scored a run in the bottom of the third inning on a RBI-single to center field off of the bat of senior catcher Colton Oyler, cutting the lead to 4-2.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Chippewa struck for two more runs after loading the bases with one out. First, the Chipps scored a run on a wild pitch from freshman right-hander Michael Kalista then freshman shortstop Titus Klotzle lifted a sacrifice fly to left field to even the game at 4-4.
“It is baseball, and it is going to happen,” noted the four-year coach. “We know we are going to get those experiences or however you want to call it with those guys and that is why you are pitching them in this game, to get them the reps.”
Chippewa surged ahead in the bottom of the sixth on a RBI-groundout to freshman shortstop Evan Rhodes by senior third baseman Anderston Hatfield to take a 5-4 lead.
The Red Devils’ offense came to life in the third frame with five hits from the first seven batters in the inning including a RBI-single to center field by junior left fielder Jake Eyerman, a RBI-double to left field by freshman right-hander Bobby Bradley and a RBI-single to right field off the bat of Rhodes to take a 4-1 lead.
Despite tallying four runs in the top of the third inning, Crestwood only recorded three hits in the final four innings.
“We can hit the ball, but we sometimes think too much,” said Stanley “In the instances of what we do well, it is not because we hit the ball out of the park because the pitcher is not very good, it is because we are hitting pitches we can handle or not swing at pitches we shouldn’t. Sometimes we don’t always do that.”
Although the Red Devils succumbed to a late-inning rally by Chippewa, Stanley believes that his team can overcome the loss with two more games left in the Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division. Crestwood is currently tied for first place with league rival Kirtland, but each team has two league games remaining on their schedule. The Red Devils will take on Harvey in consecutive games while Kirtland will face Wickliffe. If both teams win out, Crestwood will secure a share of the CVC Valley Division championship, its first one since joining the league for the 2020-21 season. If one team loses while the other sweeps, then that team will reign as the sole league champions.
According to Stanley, it is an impressive showing after a lot of assumptions were made that the Red Devils’ season was over before he first pitch was even thrown after four starters were ruled out for the year due to season-ending injuries.
“It was kind of exciting coming into the season because I didn’t graduate any players last year, so we knew we had a lot of experience coming back,” Stanley added. “The good news is that everybody who has had to step up and help and has done so tremendously and the freshmen we have, they are a talented group and can be really, really good.”
In addition to leaning on an experienced roster to navigate turbulent times at the start of the season, Stanley said that the foundation he started building when he first inherited the program has yielded fruit this year with Crestwood emerging as a force with a winning league record for the first time.
“I have a lot of participation from middle school kids all the way up to the high school kids and that is something that had never even been done at least to the degree that I did it and it has paid dividends with them being 7-1 in the conference,” he said. “You don’t get that by accident.”
Following a home game against CVC Valley Division rival Harvey on Tuesday night and a road game against Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary on Wednesday evening, the Red Devils will return to action and face Portage County rival Streetsboro on May 15 at American Legion Stadium at 5 p.m
