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Flurry of OVAC baseball contests begins today

ROUNDING SECOND — Madonna’s Nick Paul rounds second base against Catholic Central on April 5. (Photo by Andrew Grimm)

This weekend, the top four teams in each of the five OVAC classes square off on the baseball diamond, and five of the qualifying teams are from the Herald-Star/Daily Times coverage area.

In Class 4A, Steubenville enters as the top seed and will face No. 4 seed St. Clairsville Saturday at Vaccaro Field. In the other 4A semifinal, Edison earned the No. 2 seed and takes on No. 3 seed Meadowbrook Saturday at Jefferson Lake State Park.

In 2A, both semifinals feature area teams. No. 1 seed Toronto faces No. 4 seed River at home on Saturday, while Steubenville Catholic Central claimed the No. 3 seed and travels to No. 2 seed Linsly.

The other area team in the tournament is another No. 1 seed in Madonna, which takes on No. 4 seed Frontier today at Edwin J. Bowman Field.

STEUBENVILLE

Big Red comes in with a 7-2 record and has been an OVAC champion in each of the last four seasons between Class 4A and 5A. Last season, Fred Heatherington’s club defeated Edison 4-1 in the 4A final. Being the defending champs is not something Heatherington and his team get caught up in, though.

“We don’t worry about that,” Heatherington said. “We just worry about trying to get better every day. We had a good practice (Thursday). We are trying to get better at the little things we are trying to get across to the kids, and if we can do that we have a good chance to get a win.”

Big Red and the Red Devils were supposed to meet on April 3 but got postponed due to weather. They only met once last season, a Steubenville win, so these two teams are not all that familiar with one another.

“We have not seen them play this year,” Heatherington said. “They have some guys back from last year that can play.”

The rainouts and cancellations have not allowed Heatherington to get his club on the field as much as he would like, as has been the case for every area team.

“Hopefully everybody can start playing some baseball around here,” Heatherington said. “It has been a while since everybody has been on the field consistently. We are thankful to have our great indoor facility. I think our leading hitter has maybe 20 at bats. No one has been able to get on the mound consistently. We talked about it (Thursday) in practice. The weather is going to change and we’re going to be jammed up with games. That’s the way you want to play baseball — every day, not play one and practice five.”

EDISON

The Wildcats are 8-2 coming into the tournament and have reached the final in 4A each of the last two seasons, reaching an OVAC final in three of the last four with a 5A title appearance in 2014.

Though they fell to Steubenville in last year’s 4A title game and the teams are the top two seeds this time around, a potential rematch is not something Wildcats coach Mike Collopy is ready to look forward to.

“We are a day-by-day operation,” he said. “We are not looking too far ahead, just at what is in front of us right now. Obviously we prepare for more than that as coaches, but as a team that is where are focus is.”

The season so far has brought forth improvement despite the struggle to get games in with the bad weather.

“We have had good and bad,” Collopy said. “There are areas we have improved in and areas we need to keep improving in. There are areas I think we need to a little more consistent in. Our guys have had a really good approach to things and have been extremely coachable and done everything we have asked them to do. Out biggest thing right now is consistency.”

Meadowbrook (7-3) is a not-so-familiar opponent for the Wildcats.

“We do not know too much about them right now,” Collopy said. “We do know they have won six or seven in a row so they are a hot team coming in. We have not played them for four years. There’s not really a whole lot of common opponents. There is not a lot of familiarity but what do know is they are very solid.”

Facing a team like the Colts, who are 7-3, is something Collopy thinks will pay dividends at tournament time.

TORONTO

The Red Knights sport an impressive 11-1 record so far this season. Toronto won the 2A title in 2016 and 2015, falling to Wheeling Central — now in 3A — last season. Their opponent, the River Pilots, come in at 5-2 and have lost in the semifinal each of the past two seasons.

CATHOLIC

CENTRAL

The Crusaders will travel to Wheeling for a showdown with the Cadets, getting back in the OVAC tournament after missing it last season.

“We do not know a whole lot about them,” Central coach Don Young said of the Cadets, who come in with an 8-4 record. “We know they are very good every year and are going to be a challenge for us.”

Central sits at 5-4, and is fighting the growing pains of having a young team coupled with the lack of time on the diamond due to the weather.

“It has hurt us to not be out on the field,” Young said. “Every night is a learning experience. We do a lot of positive things every night and a lot of negative things. We’re working through it.”

MADONNA

After missing the show last season and two of the past three seasons, the Blue Dons are back and the team to beat in 1A with a 9-5 record playing what coach Tim Provenzano purposely makes a challenging schedule.

“This has been a building type thing for the last couple years,” Madonna coach Tim Provenzano said.

“We have a good senior bunch but a lot of our kids are still juniors. I make it hard on them. We are a single A school, but a lot would compare our schedule to a two A, or even three A schedule. We do that to prepare these kids for this. The better competition you play, the better you’re going to be down the road. I am a firm believer in that.”

Being the top seed does not add any pressure, according to Provenzano. The challenge has been, similar to everyone else in the Valley, with the weather.

“I don’t believe it adds any pressure,” he said. “It’s been a rough year (with the weather). You’ve got to find new ways to practice. When you’re inside the gym for three weeks without stepping outside, it’s a little tough. We’ve found ways to keep the kids involved and it has paid off. We’re fortunate to be one of the teams that has 14 games in.”

As for the opponent, 7-7 Frontier is a brand new one for the Blue Dons, which is something that can help prepare them for tournament time later on.

“We have never played them in the years that I have been head coach and not even back when I was an assistant,” Provenzano said. “I’ve seen a couple of their scores but not much. Any time that you’re going into a playoff-type, championship-type model, it prepares you for sectionals because they are really the same way (facing unfamiliar teams).”

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