By Alex Schillig
PBR Ohio Assistant Scouting Director

CANTON, OH - In the 5:00pm match up at Thurman Munson Stadium, Lake and North Canton Hoover squared off for a chance to play in the district finals.  

Both starters had plenty of success throughout the game as both went the distance, throwing seven innings. Lake sent senior right handed pitcher Matt Criswell to the mound and Hoover gave the ball to senior right hander Alex Binnie.  

In the first inning, both starters came out of the gate hot.  Criswell and Binnie both displayed some of their overpowering stuff as they both struck out two opposing hitters in the first inning.  

After Criswell worked a quick second inning, the momentum started to favor the Blue Streaks.  Junior Preston Patterson got things started for Lake stroking a lead-off single. Another single by Mitchel Spotleson put Patterson in scoring position with junior Daniel Wharton at the dish. Wharton also got in on the singles party, poking an RBI line drive to left field scoring Patterson and giving Lake an early 1-0 lead.  After a fielders choice and an RBI single hit by Damian Maglione (pictured), Lake found themselves with a 3-0 lead after two innings.  

In the fourth, Lake starter Criswell started to lose his command for the zone walking sophomore Jarid Seeman, and senior Will Haueter (Northern Kentucky Commit) to start the inning.  Starting to gain some momentum, Vikings pitcher Alex Binnie laid down a bunt single loading the bases with no outs.  Matt Criswell was able to keep his composure on the mound, striking out two and only allowing one run to score on a sacrifice fly hit by Reagan Foote.

With the Lake lead shrunk to 3-1, North Canton Hoover struggled to get anything going in the later innings against Lake's crafty right hander Matt Criswell.  

Hoover managed just one hit in the final three innings, allowing Lake to advance to the District Finals where they will meet with No. 5 ranked Massillon Jackson.

To view scouting notes from this game, please visit the Ohio High School Scouting Blog. The blog gets updated throughout the week.

To discuss this game, please visit our partner JJHuddle.