Baseball Insider East: Coaches busy plotting strategies for Ohio Division II district tournament

Tim Rogers / Plain Dealer Reporter, May 15, 2009 2:01 a.m.

Walsh Jesuit coach Chris Kaczmar and pitching coach John Ventura will huddle and talk often this weekend. The same goes for Tallmadge coach Kenny Linn and his top assistant, Ben Shepherd. Ditto Field coach Don Coleman and his top guy, Joe Peterson, and Archbishop Hoban's Jim Diestel and John Irvine.

If it was a course it would be called Pitching Strategy 101. Different scenarios will be discussed. Options will be looked into. Opponents' strategies will be dissected. Decisions will be made, changed, and made again. How does a team determine its pitching plans for possible back-to-back district games on Monday and Tuesday?

It's not as if the four schools are strangers. This is the second time in the past three years that all four have reached the district semifinals and only Hoban was missing in 2008 or else it would be three out of three.

A done deal: Only Coleman had a set strategy as of Thursday. Not as pitching-rich as Walsh Jesuit or Tallmadge, Coleman said he will use senior ace Cody Umbright on Monday against Tallmadge. If successful, he will call on Forrest Boggs for Tuesday's championship game against Walsh Jesuit or Hoban. Umbright is 5-2 with a 1.57 ERA and has struck out 99 batters in 53 innings. Boggs, also a senior, is 6-1 with a 3.21 ERA and has struck out 56 in 32 innings.

"Let's face it, we're the darkhorse here," said Coleman. "I'm going with my best guy. We don't have the depth the others have but we have done a pretty good job of making the other team work."

The Falcons (16-7) have given Walsh Jesuit its toughest games of the postseason in the last two years, losing 2-1 and 1-0 in the district semifinals.

The Tallmadge trio: Linn can chose from junior ace Brian Kilway (5-1, 40 strikeouts, 3.53 ERA), 6-4 freshman Tucker Linder (4-0, 25 strikeouts, 2.70 ERA) or senior Matt Keen (4-0, 32 strikeouts, 0.58 ERA). Linder is the son of Kent State softball coach Karen Linder. Keen, who will attend Case Western Reserve in the fall, also is batting a team-leading .491 and his 18 RBI are second on the team to Joe Cochran's 25.

Hoban's hopes: Senior Casey Wilson should get the call against Walsh Jesuit. Wilson, who is batting .548 and has knocked in 20 runs, is 3-2 with a 3.92 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 25 innings. One of his losses came to Tallmadge in the early going. Take that away and Wilson is 3-1 with a 1.94 ERA. Diestel's other choices are senior Tim Shaub (2-0, 2.37 ERA) or sophomore Matt Gebacz (2-0, 2.49 ERA). Shaub is batting .442 and has scored 26 runs. Sophomores Kerrigan Cain (.510, 18 RBI) and Kolin McMillen (.420) have played well.

Walsh will wait: One of the advantages the Warriors have is they play Hoban at 8 p.m., after Tallmadge and Field play at 5. Kaczmar said he might wait until Monday before making a decision and will have all his pitchers - Tyler Skulina (6-0, 0.89 ERA, 46 strikeouts), Drew Danko (6-1, 1.04 ERA, 38 strikeouts) and Greg Greve (4-0, 2.39 ERA, 36 strikeouts) - ready to go.  

Strange day:Western Reserve Academy's Matt Shaw, a Hudson resident, said he felt fine Saturday morning. He played left field in the first of two games against Buffalo Nichols, and pitched the second game, tossing a five-inning, two-hitter in an 11-1 win. He went 5-for-7 and drove in four runs on the day at bat.

He went to a dance recital that night at school but began feeling poorly around 8:30 p.m. He went home and slept until noon on Sunday. Around 1 p.m. his conditions worsened and he was admitted to Akron General Hospital. The diagnosis was pneumonia.

Shaw, who will attend Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., said on Tuesday that he was feeling better and expected to be released from the hospital before the weekend.

Tough out:Kenston sophomore Patrick Porter, who began the week with a .410 batting average and has hit 10 triples, has struck out once in 78 at-bats.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:trogers@plaind.com, 216-470-5945