Max Milkovich, Devon Lehman, Matt Large lead STVM to district semifinal win over Holy Name

TWINSBURG — St. Vincent-St. Mary played its brand of baseball Monday afternoon under first-year coach Ben Shepherd at Dodge Intermediate School in Twinsburg.

That meant for a long day for Parma Heights Holy Name.

Senior center fielder Max Milkovich and senior shortstop Devon Lehman were active at the plate and in the field, senior catcher Daniel Krabill flashed his strong right arm and junior left-handed pitcher Matthew Large consistently threw strikes to lead STVM to a 7-1 win in a Division II district semifinal.

STVM (18-10) will meet reigning Division II state champion Chagrin Falls Kenston (12-14) in a district final at 3 p.m. Wednesday at Dodge. Kenston beat Buckeye 2-1 in Monday's other district semifinal.

"We had great resilience, perseverance, confidence and focus," Lehman said. "That has been a big stress for the playoffs. We have had a dry spell the last few years. This is my second playoff win, and it feels great."

Lehman, a four-year varsity player, smacked a triple to score Milkovich with two outs in the bottom of the first and hit a single to score Milkovich and junior Zack Kurkey with two outs in the third. The Irish added two more runs in the third when sophomore Rylan Hurley doubled in Lehman and junior Tyler Slone singled in Hurley.

"It was a tough at-bat," Hurley said of his double. "I was fighting. [Holy Name left-handed junior Dominick Marchetta] was working in some good off-speed pitches and I knew that if I sat back on one it would go a long way. That is exactly what I did."

STVM freshman Matt Engelhart singled with two outs in the fourth and scored when Milkovich roped a single. Slone was hit by a pitch to lead off the sixth, senior Sam Donatelli entered to run and proceeded to score when junior Ashton Tamzarian laid down a sacrifice bunt and senior Aidan Zwisler lifted a sacrifice fly.

Milkovich finished 3-for-3 in the leadoff spot with three singles, two runs, two stolen bases and an RBI. He added a diving catch in center in the sixth inning.

"In the first inning, I am trying to see pitches, especially so that the guys can see what is going on with the pitcher," Milkovich said. "Coming in, we knew what he was going to throw a lot. Our coaches did a lot of scouting on them. We knew he was going to come in on us with a lot of off-speed [pitches]. We worked on staying up in the box and in on the plate."

STVM topped Holy Name (8-18) for the second time this season after the Green Wave beat the Irish in a Division II sectional semifinal last season.

"We knew they were going to come out tough right away," Milkovich said. "We played them two times in the last year before today, so we knew this would be a hard game to win, but we know we are the better team and we deserve to be here."

Large (7-1) pitched a complete game with nine strikeouts and allowed a home run to junior Ismael Sostre in the second. Large has two wins over Holy Name this season.

"Being able to settle in with the defense behind me, that helps," Large said. "I felt like the fastball, I was able to establish that early in the game. ... I felt like I was able to command the slider pretty well. Dan behind the plate, was making my life easier [by picking off two runners at first base]."

STVM baseball enjoys bounceback season with new head coach

STVM won its first district semifinal game since 2016 after going 7-15 last season . Shepherd praised his players and assistants Scott Noel, Mike Paulo and Don Coughlin for their work.

"Our coaching staff helps us a lot," Lehman said. "We are building a different culture than what we had previously. We focus more on the little things. The little things take care of games. Great approaches at the plate always help out and our pitching staff is more commanding than it has been."

Large said: "We have a great culture this year and a great group of players. The culture is a big part of our success."

Shepherd said STVM returned "talented players" off last year's team. He saw a team "that could go make a run," and he knows what postseason success looks like after serving as pitching coach on Tallmadge's 2017 Division II state championship team and the 2018 Division II state semifinal team.

"This is a group of guys who hadn't had a ton of stability," Shepherd said. "When you go through three coaches in three years, stability. They wanted it. They wanted structure. They wanted stability. What I thought we brought in was a sense of culture, a culture of success. This is my 20th year coaching. Being with Kenny [Linn] for 17 years [at Tallmadge] and then I was at Beachwood the last two years and we won sectionals both years and won 20 games last year.

"Our program runs a certain way, and if the kids believe in it and trust in it, it works. That is what we had to get to them, and it didn't take long for them to buy into it. That was the beauty part of it. They wanted it and are thriving with it."

Noel was also on Tallmadge's coaching staff during the 2017 Division II state title run and was an assistant at Hoban in 2021 when the Knights won the Division II state championship .

"The culture is a huge thing," Hurley said. "We have each other's backs."

Michael Beaven can be reached by email at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com and is on Twitter at @MBeavenABJ .

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Max Milkovich, Devon Lehman, Matt Large lead STVM to district semifinal win over Holy Name