Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Canfield’s Joey Gabriel (left) reacts with Zain Jadallah (right) during a five run first inning against Hubbard at Thurman Munson Memorial Stadium in Canton.

CANTON — All season long, Hubbard’s pitching has been nearly flawless. The starter pairing of Braydon Songer and Gabe Rusnak propelled the Eagles to 23 wins and their first district championship in program history.

However, in Tuesday’s Division IV regional semifinal in Canton, Canfield shelled Rusnak en route to a 10-2 victory, in the process clinching a regional title game appearance for the first time in seven years.

“Going into the year, for us, the district’s the goal, and that’s been a hard ceiling for us the last couple years. So to clear that hurdle was big,” Canfield head coach Matt Weymer said. “We told the kids, at the regional, it’s bonus baseball. You want to get really greedy because you’re only two games away from where you really want to end up.”

Before Tuesday’s game began, Hubbard head coach John Schiraldi had a decision to make. He could either choose to start Songer, whose 100 strikeouts this season broke a program record that had stood since 1957, or he could start Rusnak, who dominated all season and, like Songer, had an ERA below 1.00.

Schiraldi ultimately tapped Rusnak, a senior, to take the mound for Hubbard’s first-ever regional semifinal.

“Braydon threw 125 pitches [in the district final], and they were high-leverage pitches too. If that was a 90-pitch game and we were up five and maybe he cruised then, yeah, I probably could have went with him. But I knew they were a good team, and I knew he would probably have to be out there the whole time. I thought it was a lot to ask a kid to throw 250 pitches in four days. He has such a bright future. I don’t want to run the kid into the ground.

“If we would have kept it tight, I probably would have used him for an inning or two to close… And I had a lot of confidence in Gabe. He’s been there before. He had a sub-1.00 ERA, too, and he had seven wins his sophomore year. Last year, he was a little banged up, and then this year, he had seven wins again this year. So I felt confident with him.”

Unfortunately for Hubbard, the Cardinals were greedy.

Joey Gabriel, the first batter of the game, drove the ball deep into left field and over the head of an outfielder who mistakenly took a few steps in after contact. The result was a leadoff double and the start of a tumultuous first inning for the Eagles.

Dylan Mancini singled to drive in Gabriel for the first run of the game before Zain Jadallah’s RBI double brought home Mancini. Following an Anthony Groner single, Ryan Weibling recorded Canfield’s fifth straight hit, driving in Jadallah to give the Cardinals a 3-0 lead.

David Murphy extended the run with an RBI single, and a fielder’s choice on a Tanner Stricko ground ball scored the fifth and final run of the first inning.

In the second, the Cardinals continued to hit off Rusnak; in addition to two walks, Groner and Murphy each singled, with Murphy’s hit scoring both Jadallah and Groner.

Before the third inning, Schiraldi replaced Rusnak with Matt Bobovnik.

“If you’ve been around baseball long enough, you’ll have days like this. You have some really good ones. You have some that aren’t so good,” Schiraldi said. “If the balls hit four feet one way or the other, and it goes to somebody instead of going through them, maybe things are a little different. But credit to them. They consistently put the bat on the ball. I always say, in any game, no matter which side you’re on, if you consistently put it in play and don’t strike out, good things will probably happen. And I think they did a good job with that.”

Despite Hubbard getting on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second inning – Kyle Barr singled to score Logan Balla before Songer drove in Colten Yobe – the Eagles were unable to catch up to the Cardinals.

Canfield added one run in the fifth and two more in the seventh to reach double digits and put even more distance between the teams.

“We played a great schedule. We saw a lot of different kinds of arms,” Weymer said. “And again, our kids have done a great job all year of just believing that when we needed it, we would be there. So these last three weeks, our offense has been really, really good. And Gabe’s a great pitcher. Songer is a great pitcher. I did not expect 10 runs either. Obviously, I didn’t. But it’s just so contagious. You lead off the game, you get a misplay in left. And then it just…kind of snowballs.”

While Canfield continues on, Tuesday’s loss represents the end to one of the greatest seasons in Hubbard baseball history.

Schiraldi said he hopes that this year is a sign the Eagles (23-7) have “turned the corner” as a program and begin to have seasons like this more often.

“Obviously not the way you want to end it, but as a whole, if you told me at the start of the year you were going to win 23 games, which tied a school record, and that was the first NE8 title since that’s been the new conference, that’s the first time we’ve won the league, and then that was our first district championship. I mean, there’s a lot to build off of.”

In the regional title game, Canfield (21-10) will meet Mentor Lake Catholic, which beat Girard 1-0 in the first leg of Tuesday’s semifinals doubleheader in Canton. First pitch between the Cardinals and Cougars is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Thursday at Thurman Munson Memorial Stadium.

“You’ve had this great season, you’ve gotten to this point, but now, you’re on the doorstep of doing something that not a lot of teams get to do,” Weymer said of his post-game message. “So I just want our kids to enjoy it, come to practice tomorrow, have a good day at practice, and then just come out Thursday and play the best game we can play.”