Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Canfield’s Sydney Lutz (10, left) and Sofia Castronova (9, right) celebrate at home plate after the Cardinals’ walk-off win over Austintown Fitch on Thursday in Austintown.

By NEEL MADHAVAN

Staff writer

AUSTINTOWN — Canfield junior Caylee Ortiz is used to delivering in big moments.

So much so, that she earned the nickname “Miss May and June” from Canfield head coach Michael Kernan after delivering pivotal hits for the Cardinals in the state semifinal and championship games last year during their title run.

On Thursday, she delivered once again for Canfield, hitting a solo home run in the fourth inning, and then producing a walk-off base hit to spur the Cardinals to a 5-4 victory over All-American Conference rival Austintown Fitch.

“She came through in tournament time last year, and this is basically a tournament atmosphere a little bit,” Kernan said. “To see her step up — she just has a mentality or gear in there that ratchets her up to make plays when you need them.”

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Canfield had a chance to win the game with the top of its batting order after Fitch had tied things up 4-4 in the top of the frame on an RBI by Abby Toth.

With an out on the board for the Cardinals, Sydney Lutz was able to reach first base on an error after Fitch shortstop Alyssa Rodgers mishandled a grounder.

Canfield’s Marina Koenig then blasted a double into right field that advanced Lutz and the winning run to third base. Falcons head coach Steve Ward then opted to intentionally walk Leah Figueroa to load the bases, which set the stage for Ortiz.

“I felt hyped. I was hyped,” Ortiz said. “I was excited to go out there, and I wanted to do it for my team.”

After two pitches from Fitch pitcher Kourtney Fedorek — a strike and a ball — Ortiz belted a grounder through a gap in the infield to score Lutz and deliver the walk-off victory for the Cardinals.

“Those kinds of moments bring out the best in me because I like it when our team gets really excited,” Ortiz said. “I like seeing us all happy and coming together and being good teammates and having good team bonding. I feel like that definitely brings us all together.”

Fitch was able to take control in the early going thanks to a solo home run by Kylie Folkwein in the second inning and then another solo homer in the fourth inning, this time by Toth.

But after the Falcons built a 3-2 edge on an RBI triple by Rodgers in the fifth inning, Canfield was able to take advantage of three walks in the bottom of the inning after a pitching change by Fitch. Lutz and Koenig scratched out a pair of runs for the Cardinals to give them their first lead of the evening.

Neither team was able to score in the sixth inning and Toth was able to tie things up with her RBI in the seventh.

The Falcons had opportunities to retake the lead in the final two innings but weren’t able to capitalize after leaving five runners on base.

“We put ourselves in a position where we were fortunate to get out of there only giving up the one run,” Kernan said. “We made some plays and pitchers stepped up and you try to manage that against a good hitting team like Fitch.”

Fitch had two runners on with one out in the sixth inning, then had the bases loaded in the seventh after Toth’s tying hit.

“That hurts any time you leave runners on base,” Ward said. “Right now, we’re just having trouble stringing hits together, and we’re going to work on them, and we’re going to be fine. I have no doubt in these players — they’re high-level players and expectations are always so unbelievably high for them. That’s the way they like it, and that’s the way we like it.”

Fitch finished with 10 hits, compared to six for Canfield, while the Falcons also changed pitchers three times. Toth went 3-for-4 at the plate with two RBIs to lead the Falcons.

“We thought we hit the ball well today. Unfortunately, a lot of them were just right at them, and they’re going to make those plays all the time,” Ward said.

Both teams are winding down the regular season with the playoffs looming in the next couple weeks. Canfield is set to finish a postponed game against Boardman today, while Fitch hosts Aurora on Monday.