CONNIE MACK TOURNAMENT 'Sterling' effort leads Line Drive into regional

By BILL SULLIVAN
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
STRUTHERS -- During the regular season, pitcher Brian Sterling played with Becdir Construction.
Becdir finished 11-16 and placed seventh in the 10-team Class B League.
Then, league champion Line Drive Academy added the recent Austintown Fitch High graduate to its post-season roster and Sterling paid dividends Saturday in the fifth round of the Connie Mack Ohio state tournament.
In a battle of undefeated teams, Sterling allowed just three hits and struck out seven over six innings as Line Drive beat J. L. Clevelanders 6-3.
"I should have been with this team all year, but I had some fun in regular season and now it's game time," said Sterling.
"They offered me to come with them beginning of the year but I turned them down to go play with another team. I'm just glad to be back."
The Clevelanders aren't so happy he returned.
By winning, Line Drive guaranteed itself a position in next week's regional tournament. There were 38 teams entered in the state meet and eight will advance.
Taking control
Sterling gave up just one hit in the first four innings when his team jumped out to a 4-1 lead.
"He's one of your typical lefties," said Line Drive manager Jim Ciambotti.
"He likes to nitpick on the corners and keep people off balance. He mixes in the fastball. He did a great job for us."
While Sterling was keeping the Clevelanders in check, Line Drive was wasting several scoring opportunities early.
Line Drive left six runners -- five in scoring position -- in the first four innings.
"We should have had a lot more runs early in the game," Ciambotti said. "We wasted I don't know how many people on base.
"Fortunately later in the game we started to take advantage of it."
Line Drive successfully stole four bases in the first three innings to help compensate for a lack of power hitting.
The team hit just three home runs all season, two in regular play, and none in five tournament games.
"We are, more or less, a station-to-station ball club," Ciambotti said. "Occasionally, we'll hit the gaps.
"We really got to use our speed and put the ball in play and execute fundamentally."
Putting it away
Line Drive gave Sterling more room to move when they made it 5-1 in the fifth. Marc Sikora was hit by a pitch and scored on a throwing error following a ground ball.
"Thankfully we got some runners in scoring position later in the game and took advantage," said Ciambotti.
Sikora walked with the bases loaded in the sixth to force in the sixth run.
Jonathan Zizzo, who will walk on at Ohio State, singled twice while Chris Tremblay walked twice and scored both times to ignite the Line Drive attack.
Perhaps the most telling statistics on Sterling was this -- he had more hit batters (4) than hits allowed (3).
But he was effective enough to help his new team advance.
sullivan@vindy.com