DIV. IV BASEBALL Getsy gets job done against Leetonia

The Lowellville pitcher fired a three-hitter with 10 strikeouts in a 6-1 opening-round win.
By JOHN KOVACH
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
STRUTHERS -- Senior pitcher Nick Getsy of the Lowellville High baseball team has high hopes of pitching for Youngstown State next season.
His sharp performance against Leetonia Tuesday in a first-round game of the Division IV sectional tournament should give him a boost of confidence as he seeks to become a Penguin.
Getsy retired the first 16 batters he faced and went on to pitch a three-hitter with 10 strikeouts and no walks.
Lowellville (6-11) scored all of its runs in the fifth and sixth innings for a 6-1 victory at Cene Park.
Infield hit halts bid
"I never think about that [a perfect game]," said Getsy (4-5), whose bid for a perfect game was broken up by Jamie Kegelmyer's infield single in the sixth inning.
"I pitch my game and one pitch at a time," Getsy said. "I was throwing mostly fast balls and I threw only about three or four curves. That's all that I had to throw."
Coach Frank Mayberry of Lowellville, in his fourth year, said Getsy "was pitching well. He said his left elbow was bothering him before the game, but it didn't stop him from pitching."
Getsy said he sprained his left shoulder in the fifth inning when he was diving back to third base. But, "I was able to keep throwing," he said.
Zitello lauds Getsy
Coach Lou Zitello of Leetonia (1-17), in his fifth season, said Getsy was "definitely" the difference in the game.
"He kept us off balance and moved the ball around. It was one of the best pitching performances against us this year," said Zitello, whose team committed seven errors.
"We had one bad inning," Zitello said.
"We did that all year. We put ourselves in the hole and never can recover from it."
Leetonia starter Jay Fiehler (0-5) blanked Lowellville for the first four innings on four hits, before the Rockets finally got to him with a four-run fifth inning that began after one out on Nick Pica's double.
Pope delivers
Then after Anthony Donatelli reached first on an error, Nick Pope slammed a two-run triple and scored on an error before Getsy followed with a run-scoring single.
And in the sixth, Dan Bond singled home Chuck Mangine, who also had singled, to make it 5-0; and the Rockets added their final tally on an error.
Mangine finished with two singles.
"It took us awhile to get [the offense] going," Mayberry said.
And it helped that "they had several errors."
After Kegelmyer's infield single broke up Getsy's perfect-game bid in the sixth, Kenny Trumbull followed with a double that scored Kegelmyer with Leetonia's only run.
kovach@vindy.com