Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Canfield junior Michael Patellis celebrates with his teammates in the dugout after hitting a two-run double against Howland on Monday at Canfield High School.

CANFIELD — Poor weather only briefly slowed down the Canfield Cardinals in their matchup with the Howland Tigers on Monday.

Canfield shook off a tough first inning to defeat the Tigers 8-4.

Cold and wet games in the spring are not unusual for baseball players in Ohio but as flurries of snow began to blow throughout the field in the first inning, it stung more than usual for the Cardinals. Canfield just recently returned from a slate of games played in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

“We had great weather down there,” Cardinals head coach Gary Knittle said. “We looked at the forecast when we got back. Sunday it was 80 degrees, everything looked great… But we saw (the bad weather) coming.”

Canfield had an error and gave up three hits in the first inning as Howland quickly jumped out to a 2-0 lead. A slick ball and fielding mistakes led the Cardinals to fall behind early, but Knittle credited his starting pitcher, Jameson Beck, for battling through it.

“You’ve got to tip your cap to Jameson,” Knittle said. “It was legit sleeting while he was out on the mound. Ethan Prout made an uncharacteristic error, the first ball went right at him. It should’ve been a quick inning, but errors will kill you.”

The Tigers learned that the hard way in the third inning. After starting pitcher Brendan Ray struck out the first batter of the inning, he walked the next three Canfield batters. With the bases loaded, Michael Patellis hit an RBI double to give the Cardinals a 3-2 lead.

“Once we first started to get a couple guys on base, I knew I had to step up for the team,” Patellis said. “We had a couple of good at-bats before and started to tire the pitcher out. I knew he was going to leave one over the plate, just put it in play, try to do the best I can.”

Ray faced 10 batters in what was a hectic third inning for Howland. Along with Patellis’ double, the Tigers had a wild pitch, and two throwing errors. Canfield left the third inning with a 6-2 lead.

“We started off that inning with a great strikeout,” Howland head coach Zack Byler said. “We were 0-2 on their leadoff hitter and then everything went downhill right from there. Pitching that inning was real strong, but once there’s that crack in the armor there, they just kind of exposed it and got runners on the bags a whole bunch.”

After the third inning, the Tigers had pitchers active in the bullpen the rest of the game. But Ray was never pulled out. He threw over 100 pitches against Canfield. He gave up seven hits, eight runs, and struck out six Cardinal batters. While Ray battled back from a tough third inning, seven team errors cost the Tigers plenty of opportunities.

“He had an excellent game,” Byler said. “It was just the errors. Total team errors. There were seven errors on the board, but we counted nine or 10 including some mental stuff.”

Canfield took advantage of every Howland mistake. In the fifth inning, Jack Davis got caught in a rundown between third base and home plate after a bunt by Scottie Eaton rolled down the third base line. Instead of it being a routine out for the Tigers, Davis was able to avoid being tagged and reached home plate, extending Canfield’s lead to 8-4.

“That’s a running error on our part,” Knittle said. “Jack got a little too aggressive… He got a little too far down the line, they made an error. In the type of weather we played in, you try to force teams to make errors. We’re aggressive, nobody will tell us that we’re not aggressive. We were a little too aggressive there and it backfired for them and kind of lucked out for us.”

Whether it was assertive play or simply luck, Canfield took advantage of sloppy plays by the Tigers and came away with the victory over Howland.

The Tigers will not have to wait long for their chance at revenge as they will face the Cardinals today at 5 p.m. Canfield is hoping to complete its sweep of Howland.

“We win the day,” Knittle said. “We don’t look ahead. It’s cliche, it is what it is. I’m an old school coach. But you want to get the sweep. You want to get the first half, and then you get the chance for the sweep. That’s the plan for tomorrow.”

mcole@tribtoday.com