Connor Ryan tossed a 3-hit shutout to lead Strongnsville High to a 3-0 win over Northeast Ohio Conference foe Brunswick in a Division I district final to advance the Mustangs to the Sweet 16 for the third consecutive year.
The district title allows the Mustangs to meet Midpark of the Southwestern Conference in a Division I regional semifinal at 5 p.m. Thursday at Case Western Reserve University.
The other side of the bracket features Perrysburg and Toledo St. John's Jesuit, who will play at 5 p.m. Thursday at Bowling Green State University. The semifinal winners will play at 5 p.m. Friday at Bowling Green State University.
The Cleveland/Bowling Green regional champion will meet the Canton regional winner June 2 at Huntington Park in Columbus in a state semifinal.
Midpark won its district title with a 5-3 victory over St. Ignatius on Saturday afternoon at Berea. Earlier in the day, the Meteors defeated Lincoln-West of the Cleveland Senate, 9-7 in a district semifinal that was suspended on Friday.
The Mustangs, 19-1 on the year, tallied once in the fourth on an infield single by Justin Jakubik and added two more runs in the fifth on an RBI single by Colin Houdek and a sacrifice fly by Brennan Singleton to beat the Blue Devils for the third time this year. The two other meetings were in NOC play where the Mustangs went 10-0 to take the River Division title.
Brunswick ended the year 13-9 with three of the nine losses to Strongsville, the 2006 Division I state champion.
"The kids trust each other," said Mustangs coach Josh Sorge. "They know what to expect from each other. I think we came out of the the time we spent in the gym due to the bad weather better than most teams die. This may be the best team in the state of Ohio," he added as he continued to talk how his team has played this season.
The Mustangs had runners on base in each of the first three innings but were unable to crack the scoreboard.
"The kids were talking on the bench that we were getting good at-bats and would break through," Sorge added about Brunswick starter Brandon Kutrubs, who went 5 innings and allowed all three Strongsville runs on eight hits with three walks and two strike outs.
And unlike the district semifinal where the Mustangs won 13-4 against Westlake, Sorge was a bit more pleased with his pitching.
"We got the ground balls when we needed them," he said of Ryan, who went the distance and allowed just three hits wiht a pair of walks with eight strike outs.
Strongsville had hits in each inning and had runners reach third in both the second and third only to come away empty.
But in the fourth Anthony Morino opened the inning with a single, stole second and move to third on a deep fly ball by Brennan Singleton. Jakubik then brought Morino with his second hit of the day.
The Mustangs added two more in the fifth when Nate Langhals led off with a double and Anthony Mauer followed with a single to put runners on the corners with no outs. Houdek then singled to score Langhals. Austin Legate moved the runners up with a sacifice bunt before Morino walked to load the bases with one out. Singleton then made it 3-0 with his fly ball to center.
Ryan gave up a third inning lead off single to Brian Cox and walked Tyler Greiner with two out in the fourth without any damage. He struck out the next four batters to get the final out of the fourth and all three batters he faced in the fifth before Justin Arthur single to lead off the Brunswick sixth. He reached third but failed to score when Ryan got the next three batters.
Greiner led off the seventh with a single to center but was erased when Ryan got a double play ground ball out of Kutrubs. He struck out Anthony Bova for the third time to end the game.