Austintown Fitch rallies to regionals on a 4-3 victory
By PAUL TRGOVAC
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
STRUTHERS -- You never would have thought that a car accident and a rain delay would work to a team's advantage.
The Austintown Fitch High baseball team trailed Ashtabula Lakeside in their Division I district final 2-0 in the second inning when the game was suspended at Cene Park on Friday.
The Falcons were without their starting center fielder, Jeff Kotel, who had been in a car accident that day.
On Sunday, Kotel was back and had two key hits and a big catch in the sixth inning, as the Falcons came from behind to defeat Lakeside 4-3 for their second straight Division I district title.
Fitch (19-6) will play Green (19-9) in the regional tournament Friday at Thurman Munson Stadium in Canton at 5 p.m. The other semifinal will be between Twinsburg (20-10) and Mentor (26-2).
Rallied in fourth
The Falcons rallied in the bottom of the fourth inning. John Mang reached on a one-out error and advanced to second on a groundout by Matt Lutz. A wild pitch moved Mang to third and then Mike Brown walked. At this point Fitch coach Wally Ford entered Kotel as a pinch hitter. He responded with a double down the left field line to tie the score at 2. On the throw to the plate Kotel went to third, and he scored the go-ahead run on another wild pitch.
"I guess we got this kind of thing down to come from behind. The kids believe that they can come back," said Ford. "Kotel stepped up today. You never want to see anything like that [the car accident] happen but he was able to come on board."
The Dragons tied the score in the top of the fifth inning. A one out single by Chad Campbell was followed by a hit batter. After a strikeout Jon Gogul singled to score the tying run.
Fitch threatened in the bottom of the inning, as Dom Modarelli and Bob Melnek had singles to start the inning. Lakeside then brought Campbell into pitch and he retired the next three batters, two on strikeouts, to end the threat.
Big defensive play
In the top of the sixth, a two out double by Nick Presciano was followed by a walk to Faulkerson. Campbell then hit a shot to the gap in right-center, which Kotel made a fine running catch on to end the inning.
Lutz opened the Fitch sixth with a single and was bunted to second by Brown. Kotel then ripped a solid single to left but Lutz was only able to move to third. John Burnich then hit a slow ground ball on which the shortstop only had one play, at first base as Lutz scored.
Given the lead for the second time Mang retired the first two batters in the seventh, then after a walk to Gogul a foul popup off the bat of Ryan Flemming was caught by Roche to give the Falcons the crown.
"I was in the hospital on Friday and when it rained I was happy. I wanted to be able to come back and play," said Kotel.
Mang goes distance
Mang (4-3) went the distance, allowing five hits and five walks. The junior struck out six, including five over the final three innings.
"I didn't have my offspeed pitch all day," said Mang. "It was all adrenaline.
"This game summed up our entire season. We play and win as a team," he added.
"We have not played them [Green] but they do play a lot of the teams which we have faced this season," said Ford.
Modarelli, Melnek and Lutz had two hits along with Kotel for Fitch while Presciano had two hits for Lakeside. Campbell suffered the loss for Lakeside (17-6).