Staff photo / Preston Byers Canfield’s Ryan Weibling, center, celebrates after an RBI double during Tuesday’s Division III, Northeast 5, district semifinal win vs. Louisville at Phil Bova Field in Canfield.

CANFIELD — The first time Canfield and soon-to-be All-American Conference rival Louisville met this season, the Cardinals walked off the Leopards after surrendering an early lead. Tuesday’s rematch in the Division III, Northeast 5, district semifinals at Phil Bova Field proved to be far less dramatic.

Canfield’s offense overwhelmed Louisville with four runs in the first inning and only extended its lead as starting pitcher Ryan Weibling shut down the Leopards from the mound en route to an 8-0 win, the Cardinals’ 14th straight.

“We played just a great game,” Canfield head coach Matt Weymer said. “Ryan threw a ton of strikes. Our offense was clicking on all cylinders. We held guys, picked guys off, just ran the bases well. To get into a game where your best game is required and to play your best game, it’s just a great credit to those guys. They do all the work. They throw all the pitches. They take all the reps. It’s all on them. Every game from here on out, the chips are down. Our chips were down today, and they played a great game.”

Much like the first meeting on May 11, in which Canfield took a 4-0 lead in the second inning, the Cardinals jumped on Louisville immediately Tuesday.

After a one-two-three top of the first from Weibling, Joey Gabriel led off with a single to center field. Logan Patellis then did the same, scoring Gabriel, who had advanced on a wild pitch, in the process. Anthony Groner followed with an RBI double to the left-center field gap, and following a Jake Dovich single through the left side of the infield to put runners on the corners, Weibling drove in the third and fourth runs of the inning on a double.

The Leopards made their first pitching change of the day after Weibling’s hit, the fifth in a row by Canfield to start the game, by relieving starter Caden Kortis with Trevor Burick. The change was effective in slowing the Cardinals down, as Burick picked up three outs and stranded a pair of baserunners to end the first inning.

He did not have as much success in the second, though.

Patellis got things started for Canfield with a one-out single, and Groner and Dovich similarly singled, with Dovich’s hit up the middle scoring two runs and putting the Cardinals ahead 6-0. After Weibling drew a walk, Jackson Johnson drove in Dovich with a sacrifice fly to right field to make it 7-0.

“For most teams, the top of your lineup is going to set the table for you. Ours has been just playing really well. Joey Gabriel, Logan Patellis, Anthony Groner have been great all year, Jake Dovich. Those guys are going to be our money guys. In the first inning, [it was] just laser shows all over the place,” Weymer said. “Our guys at the bottom of the order, it’s about execution. Put together a good at-bat – Jackson Johnson had a sac fly, our nine guy had an RBI single and got hit by a pitch. And we kind of put some balls in play. It’s just about competitive at-bats, knowing your role.”

Although Canfield continued to put runners on base, runs became much harder to come by after the second inning. The Cardinals left two on to end the third, scored one but failed to do any more with bases loaded in the fourth, left two more stranded in the fifth and another in the sixth.

Fortunately, Weibling made it a moot issue.

The junior standout, despite admittedly struggling with his control at times, made it through nearly four innings before he allowed his first hit. He only surrendered one more, a single in the fifth inning, and struck out half a dozen in six innings on the mound.

“I felt great. Control was a bit off, but I dug deep and felt really good throughout. No arm problems or anything,” said Weibling, who walked five and hit a pair of batters. “I had a great defense behind me today, so it made it really easy.”

The win marked Canfield’s 14th consecutive victory; the Cardinals’ last loss came against GlenOak on April 24, which dropped them to 7-7 at that point in the season. Since then, they have outscored opponents 115-20, and their last three wins – vs. Ursuline, Lakeside and Louisville – have all been shutouts with an average margin of victory of 13.

“I think as a baseball program at Canfield, the expectation is that you get to a district final as often as you can,” Weymer said. “And obviously, with the team we had coming back from last year, I think our expectations were there.

“Last year, we had a similar situation where there was just a stretch where we didn’t play very well,” he added. “And I think when you’re as consistent in preaching the message as we are, when you work as consistently as we do, even if the results aren’t going your way, I think there’s a belief that we’re doing good stuff. … At 7-7, sometimes we’re preaching, like, ‘Hey, you got to believe.’ And then when you go home sometimes, we’re like, ‘What the hell is going on?’ They’ve really stayed the course, and to be back in the district championship for a second year in a row is really great.”

Canfield (21-7) will face No. 2 University School in the district final on Thursday at North Ridgeville High School. The Preppers, who lost 1-0 to Licking Valley in the Division III state final a year ago, are 24-5 on the season. They have beaten No. 47 Akron North and No. 24 Madison 20-0 and 10-0, respectively, to make it to the Northeast 5 district title game.

“We’ve seen them play once. I mean, they’re the two seed for a reason,” Weymer said of University. “Their record’s very good. They went to the state championship game last year. They brought some guys back from that team. We expect it to be very competitive. … [But] at this time of the year, I think a lot of it’s just about you. They’re gonna play a similar game to what we’re gonna try to play. It’s just a game of execution. We’re gonna preach the things that we think we need to do to win. If we go out and do those things at a high level, we expect to be there.”