Baseball Falls Just Short Against Top Seed Jackson
Jackson 3, Louisville 2
The Louisville Leopards Varsity Baseball team came up just short in a 3-2 road loss against the top-seeded Jackson Polar Bears Wednesday in the DI Canton Tournament Sectional Finals. With the loss, Louisville drops to 17-11 on the season.
The Leopards got on the board first in the top of the second inning. Marco Buccasso batted home Adam 
Nyland who singled just two batters before. Nyland would later reach base on an error in the top of the sixth allowing Reis Rankin to score from third. This put Louisville within a run at 3-2. Rankin led off the inning with a bunt single, which was 1 of 3 Leopard hits on the evening.
Buccasso had the only other Louisville hit when he singled to left to lead-off the top of the seventh. Brock Haren’s sacrifice bunt put Bucasso on second with only one out. However, that is as close as the Leopards would get as Jake Pallotta retired the next two batted to earn the save for the Polar Bears.
Alex Hewitt pitched all six innings for Louisville, gave up just 2 earned runs on 7 hits, and struck out 3. Hewitt is now 4-2 as a starter this season.
Jackson’s first run left the door open for some debate. Zach Meese hit a shallow fly ball to left-center field that was ruled a catch by Bucasso. The Louisville Left Fielder flipped the ball to Jake Adams who threw over to Nyland at third for what appeared to be a double play. After an appeal by the Polar Bears, the umpire crew ruled that Dillon Dingler successfully tagged up from third. His run ended up counting much to the dismay of the Leopards Dugout and fans in attendance.
Nate Rearick would single home Nate Cobb in the bottom of the third to give Jackson the lead. Later on, Cobb would score what proved to be the game-winning run via Sam Miller’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth.
On the hill, Brent Solinger started the first 6 innings, gave up 0 earned runs on 2 hits, and struck out 3 to improve to 7-0 for the Polar Bears. With the win, Jackson is now 18-5 on the season and advances to play the #3 Seeded New Philadelphia Quakers in the DI Canton District Semifinals on Monday, May 18 at Thurman Munson Memorial Stadium.
UP NEXT: The Leopards will next play for a share of the NBC Title when they travel to West Branch to take on the Warriors at 4:30 PM. JV will be home at the same time.
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