District baseball: Massillon Jackson's Landen Doll no-hits Brunswick to end Blue Devils' season

Landen Doll was razor sharp, and the Massillon Jackson baseball team's left-hander ended Brunswick's season. Doll, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound Marshall recruit, fired a no-hitter with 14 strikeouts Saturday, lifting the top-seeded Polar Bears to a 5-0 victory over the No. 9 Blue Devils in the Division I, Northeast 1 District championship game at Struthers' Bob Cene Park. Jackson (26-3) advanced to play Perrysburg (20-8) in a Region 1 semifinal at Thurman Munson Memorial Stadium in Canton on Wednesday — the winner plays Medina (22-5) or GlenOak (25-4) the next day — while Brunswick wrapped up a strong second half of the season at 18-9. Doll (10-0) walked none and was two errors from a perfect game, as Brunswick's Elijah Poindexter reached on a third-base error in the second inning and Connor Adams got on via another third-base error in the fourth. Neither runner reached second base. Doll threw 70-of-98 pitches for strikes. Adams was the only Blue Devil to not whiff against Doll, who double-pumped his fists and flung his glove toward the Jackson dugout after the final out, a high fastball for a swinging strikeout. With top starter Ryan Maslyk out due to injury, Brunswick starter Jackson Briggs (2-2) battled admirably in a complete game. The sophomore right-hander allowed only two earned runs on eight hits, walked one, hit a batter and struck out four. Ranked second in the Ohio Baseball Coaches Association D-I state poll, Jackson wasted little time taking control with two runs in the first inning. Kenyon Oakes and Darek Staudt led off with singles and an error led to the first run, another error followed and the second run came across on a groundout. The score remained 2-0 until the fourth, when the Polar Bears took full control. Noah Colando led off the inning with a double and scored on an Oakes single. Two more singles loaded the bases, the score moved to 4-0 on a fielder's choice, then 5-0 on a sacrifice fly. Briggs got out of the jam with a strikeout looking. While Brunswick fell short of reaching regionals for the first time since 2021, the Blue Devils won 14 of their previous 15 games after a 4-7 start. Included was a 5-4 win over Greater Cleveland Conference champion Medina and a come-from-behind 13-8 decision over Findlay in the district semifinals. Contact Albert Grindle at (330) 721-4043 or agrindle@medina-gazette.com. Division I, Northeast 1 District Final at Struthers Massillon Jackson 5, Brunswick 0 BRUNSWICK &emsp;&emsp;000 000 0 — 0 0 4 JACKSON &emsp;&emsp;200 300 0 — 5 8 2 WP — Landen Doll (10-0) 7 innings, 0 walks, 14 strikeouts. LP — Jackson Briggs (2-2) 6 innings, 2 earned runs, walk, hit batter, 4 strikeouts. Brunswick (18-9). Jackson (26-3) — Kenyon Oakes 3 singles, RBI, 2 runs; Darek Staudt 2 singles, 2 runs; Nico Kuty 2 RBIs; Noah Colando double, run.