ELYRIA — A 16-year-old Elyria boy was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and domestic violence yesterday after he was caught with a knife at Elyria High School.

According to a police report, the teen was taken out of class by a security officer because he was playing with a lighter. While in the office, a principal asked him to empty his pockets, and he produced the knife, a silver locking knife with a 4-inch blade.

The principal also discovered a plastic baggy that had apparently contained marijuana, but officers were unable to charge him because there was no residue remaining in the bag, the report said.

The officer was called back to the office after the student punched his father in the face, causing his nose to bleed, the report said.

The principal said that the teen was not listening to his father and was attempting to leave the office, and the two began to wrestle, which led to the punch. The teen’s father was seen by the school nurse, the report said.

The father said that he did not want to boy to return home, so he was transported to the detention home.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The bullpen phone quit working at just the wrong time. The bat boy unwittingly caused a power hitter to lay down a bunt in an RBI situation.

Then in a shaky ninth inning they had an error, a hit batsman and a bases-loaded walk.

“And still we won a ballgame,” Kansas City manager Ned Yost exclaimed Tuesday night after the Royals held on for a wild 5-4 victory over Cleveland.

More photos below.

The long-woeful and perhaps lucky Royals crept to within one game of the surprising Indians in the AL Central with the help of Bruce Chen’s strong pitching and Alex Gordon’s strong everything.

Chen (3-0) went seven innings and beat the Indians for the fourth straight time, stretching his personal winning streak, dating to last season, to seven games over 11 starts. Jeanmar Gomez (0-1), making his first major league start after being called up from Triple-A Columbus earlier in the day, took the loss on a night when the wind chill hovered near 30 degrees.

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Gordon stole two bases, scored a run, had two hits, threw out a runner at the plate and made a terrific diving catch in left field of Grady Sizemore’s sinking liner in the ninth.

“Gordon pretty much saved the game on that very nice play on Sizemore down the left-field line,” said Cleveland manager Manny Acta.

Chen cruised into the seventh with a two-hitter and a 5-0 lead, and hadn’t allowed an earned run in 20 innings. But then his stuff flattened out and things got strange.

After Orlando Cabrera singled for the first hit of the inning, Yost grabbed the bullpen phone to tell Blake Wood to get ready.

“But the phones went on the blink,” said Yost. “So we had no communication to our bullpen.”

A tired Chen kept throwing. The energized Indians kept hitting. Austin Kearns singled. Lou Marson hit a two-run double.

“Bruce gives up another hit and we’re trying to get Woody up and we can’t,” said Yost.

Finally, it was Kansas City’s finest to the rescue. The uniformed police officer near the Royals dugout used his hand-held communication device to call the officer in the bullpen and tell him to tell Wood to get ready.

“It was kind of a (mess) there for a little while but we got it straightened out,” Yost said. “Don’t ask me why or how or what, but every once in a while the phones shut off.”

In the KC eighth with a runner on base and nobody out, Kila Ka’aihue laid down a bunt that probably puzzled every fan in the stands.

Turns out the bat boy ran between Yost and third base coach Eddie Rodriguez just as Yost was going through his signs.

“Eddie was blocked out and thought I put the bunt sign on and I never put the bunt sign on,” said Yost. “That was a miscommunication. Eddie thought I’d put the bunt on and I never did. That’s not a situation we want Kila bunting in.”

Ka’aihue, to his credit, did get the sacrifice bunt down. But the runner was stranded and the Royals had to sweat the ninth when Joakim Soria got his fifth save in six opportunities even though the Indians loaded the bases with two outs on a single, third baseman Wilson Betemit’s throwing error and a hit batsman. Shin-Soo Choo drew a walk that forced in a run.

But then Soria threw three straight called strikes to Carlos Santana to end it.

“He’s a very good hitter and he was facing a good pitcher,” said Acta. “Soria made three pitches there right on the black. I think everybody wants him to swing the bat, but you also have to take your hat off sometimes to the pitcher.”

Gordon threw out Marson trying to score in the seventh on Michael Brantley’s single.

Chen went seven innings and allowed two runs on six hits, with three walks and five strikeouts.

Gordon singled in the first and had an RBI double in the fifth. Since going 0 for 5 on opening day, he’s 26 for 67 (.388) and has extended his hitting streak to a career-best 13 games..

Right behind Gordon is third baseman Betemit, who grounded a single up the middle leading off the fourth inning and stretched his hitting streak to a career-high 11 games.

Alcides Escobar singled in the third and came home on a triple by Chris Getz, who scored on Melky Cabrera’s grounder. Escobar’s RBI single made it 3-0 off Gomez in the fourth, then back-to-back doubles by Cabrera and Gordon in the fifth were followed by Jeff Francoeur’s RBI single.

Gomez went 4 1-3 innings and gave up five runs on nine hits, with two walks and three strikeouts.

Santana had an RBI single off Blake Wood in the eighth. Brantley had three hits for the Indians.

Notes

• Grady Sizemore, 5 for 9 with two doubles, two RBIs and a home run in two games since returning from knee surgery, got the night off until pinch-hitting with one out in the ninth. Early in season, Indians manager Manny Acta plans to let him play three or four games every five days or so.
• The loss kept the first-place Indians from going to 13-4 for the first time since 1988.
• The Royals and Indians came into the game ranked 1-2 in the AL in hitting.

LORAIN — Lorain Schools Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson is among nine finalists to become CEO of the Cleveland Schools.

Atkinson

Atkinson made the cut on Tuesday from the original 126 candidates, according to Roseann Canfora, a district spokeswoman. The nine candidates, who were chosen by PROACT Search, a Chicago-based school headhunting company, will now be reviewed by a local search committee.

Atkinson, who didn’t return a phone call late Tuesday night, came to Lorain in 2007 and formerly served as an associate or deputy superintendent in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., and Kansas City, Mo., school districts. After her first two years at the helm in Lorain, Atkinson was granted a five-year contract in 2009, giving her an approximately $200,000 salary plus a monthly annuity and retirement contributions.

At the time, board lawyer Anthony Giardini said the board eliminated a clause in the old contract that forbade Atkinson from seeking work elsewhere and said that the board decided that “instead of using a sword, we’re using honey.”

Atkinson’s job search comes as voters in Lorain face a 23.83-mill renewal levy next month which would not collect any additional taxes. Even if the levy passes, Lorain City Schools still face an $8 million deficit in the next school year.

Atkinson has received mixed reviews from Lorain Board of Education members. Board member Paul Biber praised her for helping to boost graduation rates and instill discipline while board member Jim Smith labeled her a micromanager and blamed her for lagging student achievement test scores.

Atkinson and the other candidates will be interviewed by the 28-member local search committee which includes clergy, parents, school administrators and teachers.

“It’s a pretty good cross section of the school community,” Canfaro said.

The committee will narrow the candidate list to five and eventually to two or three finalists, Canfaro said. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and the school board will choose the new CEO, who will replace Eugene Sanders who retired Feb. 1.

The new CEO is expected to be announced by June 1, Canfaro said. The search process will include background checks and committee visits to the finalists’ workplaces.

“There’s going to be a lot of scrutiny and diligence in picking the person for this important position,” Canfaro said.

Reporter Cindy Leise contributed to this story. Contact Evan Goodenow at 329-7129 or egoodenow@chroniclet.com.

AMHERST — The weather was less than hospitable but the atmosphere was warm and festive as Tim Kiedrowski was officially honored around noontime today for having the best bakery in America as determined by an online voting contest.

His family-run Kiedrowski’s Simply Delicious Bakery received just over 28,000 of some 55,000-plus votes in the competition sponsored by Baking Buyer, a trade publication known as the Bible of the baking industry. The Amherst business was in the running for the honor with eight other bakeries in the around the United States.

More photos below.

“I’m so proud to be from the Amherst and Lorain area, and it’s so important to see this area get some good publicity,” Kiedrowski said to a crowd gathered beneath a big white tent set up in the parking lot just outside the front door of the Cooper Foster Park Road business.

As he did when the nomination was first announced nearly a month ago, Kiedrowski reiterated today that he believed it came mostly from his efforts to “think outside the box” in terms of advertising and promotions such as the area’s well-known Paczki Ball, the 22,000 Obama cookies sold during the 2008 presidential campaign, and the special cakes he made for the 1997 All-Star baseball game played in Cleveland.

“There are bigger bakeries that make different things, but we’re the best till the best comes around,” he said.

Though clearly elated over the award and the outpouring of public support, Kiedrowski isn’t changing his ways.

“I still work 14 hours a day and make 5 o’clock deliveries every morning. But it feels great,” he said.

Some 15 to 20 union workers gathered at the edge of the road near the bakery with signs protesting the passage of Senate 5 bill, which severely restricts collective bargaining rights. The protestors gathered after apparently hearing that Gov. John Kasich, the driving force behind the measure, would attend the ceremony. Kasich was not present.