CONNIE MACK TOURNAMENT Astro Falcons roll behind Turocy's big offensive day

He went 5-for-5 with a triple, two RBIs and three runs scored in a 17-4 win.
By BILL SULLIVAN
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
STRUTHERS -- Sometimes it's necessary to compare baseball statistics in order to sense the magnitude of an individual performance.
Frank Turocy put up as much offense as the entire Barberton Nomads team, as the Astro Falcons posted a 17-4 win in the Connie Mack Tournament on Wednesday at Cene Park.
Today, the Falcons were scheduled to meet the Tuslaw Kiki Maddogs at Cene Park at 8 p.m. in the second round of the 41st annual event.
There are 38 teams in the field.
Offensive attack
Turocy went 5-for-5 with a triple, two RBIs and three runs scored. In comparison, the Nomads collected just five hits in the five-inning game.
"I don't know if I've ever gone 5-for-5," said Turocy, who hit .349 for the Falcons in the Class B League.
"It's hard to get that many at-bats and just keep on hitting the ball," he said.
In a 10-run fourth inning that broke the game open, Turocy singled, then tripled home a run and scored twice.
"I had about three hits that blooped in," Turocy said. "I wasn't hitting the ball real solid today, but they were falling. I'll take those, I guess, if they're going to fall for me."
The Falcons started John Hay (4-1), who had the lowest earned-run average (1.08) in the B League this summer.
Hay allowed three hits and three runs in three innings of work. Hay led 6-3 entering the fourth frame but was pulled after his team batted around.
"We wanted to save him for maybe Friday," said Falcon manager Bob Boughner. "Hopefully he'll be ready to go."
Tournament rules allow a pitcher to throw a maximum of 12 innings over two days, but then no work the third day of the event.
The Astro team will play once today and could play twice Friday.
"We kept him under about 60 pitches; our goal was 80," Boughner said.
"We got that big lead and decided maybe this is the time to take him out."
Strengths
The Astro team won 21 of 27 games this year, but it was pitching, not hitting, that carried them.
So, the 19-hit attack caught Boughner off guard.
"We struggled a little bit all year with our hitting," he said.
"There were some spurts where we had some nice games hitting the ball, but a lot of times we did struggle in the bigger games hitting the ball."
For Hay, who will pitch for the University of Pittsburgh next year, it was easy to throw when his team gave him six runs and six hits early.
"All I tried to think about with a lead that big was just throw strikes; don't walk anybody," said Hay. "Make them put the ball in play. The outs are going to come."
Brent Parks added three hits, including a triple, while Dan Leonard, Chad Baker, Bill Christian, Jim Eimiller and Mike Pulakos each had two hits.
"We've had strong pitching all year so hitting is going to be the key for us," said Boughner. "If we can get some we're going to be successful in this tournament."
sullivan@vindy.com