Leibas, Newark Catholic raise their game, reach district finals

HOWARD ― It's a story seemingly as old as time. Or at least over the past few decades.

As the weather heats up and the postseason begins, Newark Catholic is usually playing its best baseball.

The late, great coach John Cannizzaro was surely smiling down from above on Monday. The sixth-seeded Green Wave got three-hit pitching by sophomore Cooper Leibas and pounded out 10 hits off East Knox ace Bryar Householder in an impressive 5-0 Division III district semifinal win on the home field of the fourth-seeded Bulldogs (19-5).

"Everyone has bought into what coach Cannizzaro has taught for years," coach Ron Graves said after NC (14-12) advanced to meet the Highland-Columbus Academy winner at 5 p.m. Thursday for the district title. "We're a team first, everyone is contributing, and we're playing hard and smart. We did not want to bring our pitchers up too early. (Pitching) coach Mike Gutridge brought them along slowly, and now they're ready to go."

Leibas, one of three sophomore "aces" in the NC rotation, struck out nine and walked two. He was backed by an offense that scored four runs in the third inning, three after two were out, and tacked on fifth-inning insurance off the burly Householder, who has been all but unhittable this season.

"The middle of their order is nothing to scoff at, so I wanted to pound the zone with no free passes," Leibas said. "And if they're putting the ball in play, I know I have great defense behind me that will make all the plays when they need to."

He set the tone in the first inning, getting out of a second-and-third, one-out jam. Then, the Green Wave offense sprang to life in the third.

Freshman Alex Nagel doubled, went to third on Rocco Capretta's fly to right and scored on Troy Johnston's sacrifice fly. With two out, Kane Stephey doubled down the left field line, Miller Hutchison ripped an RBI single to center, Bryan McAnally followed with a run-scoring double to right and Mikey Hess singled to center, making it 4-0.

Hutchison then doubled to right in the fifth and rode home on McAnally's opposite-field hit. Householder fanned nine and walked only one, but the damage was done.

"We've seen him throw, and he's a good pitcher with a great curveball and who throws hard," Graves said. "But we've seen a lot of teams' best in the LCL with similar stuff."

McAnally said the Green Wave came in well prepared.

"We had a former player come in and throw batting practice, and he threw hard with a good curve," he said. "Then we cranked the pitching machine up. When we face the better teams and pitchers, we live up to the hype."

Leibas noted that NC seems to do better against the better pitchers.

"A lot of times, we'll try to do too much at the plate," he said. "We just need to let the power of the pitcher do the work, go backside and take it the other way."

The Green Wave played errorless baseball after a first-inning miscue, and two of the three East Knox hits were bad hop singles. First baseman Owen Przymierski turned a liner into a double play at first, and shortstop Stephey made a diving stop up the middle and threw another runner out.

Johnston, Hutchison and McAnally each had two hits for NC, which figures to see another strong pitcher from either Highland or Academy on Thursday. The Green Wave won't be daunted. They've beaten two of the state's top teams in Jonathan Alder (Division II) and Heath (Division III).

"We had some bad losses earlier, but we feel better now than we have throughout the year," Leibas said. "(John's) Brother (and assistant coach) Rick (Cannizzaro) said we would find out what kind of team we had in May, and I think you're seeing that."

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This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Leibas, Newark Catholic raise their game, reach district finals