The Gilmour Academy baseball team continued its postseason run by riding a pair of strong pitching performances to a district championship.
The Lancers took down Hawken School 2-0 in the semifinals before coming from behind to beat Waynedale High School 3-1 in the final. With the two wins, Gilmour captured its second straight, and 12th all-time, district title.
The semifinal against Hawken matched the Lancers up with a team they had lost against in mid-April. However, a fantastic effort from starting pitcher Will Lazzaro '23 helped ensure Gilmour came out on the winning side this time around.
While Lazzaro would settle down nicely, he did run into trouble in the first inning. A pair of walks and a Hawken single loaded the bases with no outs.
The sophomore righthander bore down and got back-to-back looking strikeouts to start to relieve some of the pressure. He got the sixth batter of the inning to fly out to left, leaving the bases loaded and escaping the jam.
Gilmour got the only runs it would need in the top of the third inning.
Mick Hopkins '22 was hit by a full-count pitch to start the inning before Tommy McCrone '23 reached on an error. One out later, Ben DeMell '21 singled to load the bases.
With two outs, Paddy Murphy '22 hit a ground ball to the left side of the infield that was misplayed, allowing two runs to score.
Hawken looked to rally right away by opening the bottom half of the inning with a double. However, Lazzaro would get a foul popup, a strikeout and a groundout from the next three batters to end the inning.
Gilmour got a runner to third with two outs in the fourth but could not add on to its lead.
The Hawks got the tying runs on base in the fourth, from a pair of singles, but Lazzaro got a ground ball to second base to stop the threat.
The Lancers had multiple runners on base in each of their final three at bats but were unable to add any insurance tallies. As it turned out, Gilmour would not need them.
Lazzaro struck out the side in the fifth and worked a 1-2-3 sixth that featured two strikeouts and a groundout.
With one out in the bottom of the seventh, a Hawken single brought the tying run to the plate. Gilmour turned to its ace, DeMell, out of the bullpen to finish off the game, and he obliged. DeMell got back-to-back strikeouts to earn the save and close out the victory.
Lazzaro registered his first postseason win by throwing 6.1 shutout innings. He racked up 10 strikeouts while throwing 73 of his 101 pitches for strikes.
DeMell finished 3-for-4 at the plate with a run scored while Murphy went 1-for-3 with a walk.
After he ended the semifinal win on the mound, DeMell started there in the district final.
Runs were once again at a premium as the game remained scoreless into the bottom of the fourth.
Waynedale would take the lead on a single, a stolen base and a RBI double with one out. DeMell minimized the damage by striking out the ensuing two batters to keep the deficit at one.
Gilmour came right back to tie the game in the top of the fifth.
McCrone reached on an error with one out, and DeMell followed with a walk one out later. Vinny Bandwen '21 then came through with a clutch, two-out single to right to plate McCrone.
DeMell then retired the Golden Bears in order in the home half on a pair of strikeouts and a popup to second.
As it turned out, Gilmour won the game by scoring twice in the sixth inning.
Kyle Laws '22 led off by lining a single to right. After two errors and a steal by pinch-runner Jake Kavcic '24, the Lancers had two runners in scoring position.
With one out, Hopkins came through by scoring the lead runner on a sacrifice fly to left field. McCrone then followed by lining a single to left to bring home Kavcic and put the Lancer lead at two.
Waynedale would open the bottom half with a single to right. After a fly out to left, Bandwen would gun down the runner trying to steal second. DeMell then struck out the batter to retire the side.
DeMell finished off the game in the seventh with little additional drama. He got a fly out to right and a popup on the infield from the first two batters. He then struck out the next batter swinging to end the game and clinch the district title.
DeMell went the distance to get the win, allowing just four hits and a lone walk while striking out 11 batters.
Bandwen went 3-for-4 at the plate while Laws had a hit, a walk and a run scored.
With its wins, Gilmour advanced to the Massillon Regional round, where it will take on South Range High School in a semifinal matchup.
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