SECTIONAL BASEBALL Sattler is stellar for Columbiana

The Clippers beat Leetonia to advance to the district semifinal.
COLUMBIANA -- When your father was a flame-throwing pitcher who just missed making the big leagues, you might think the comparisons and pressure might get to you.
Not so for Columbiana High's Billy Sattler, whose laid-back approach paid dividends again Monday as the Clippers topped Leetonia 8-2 in a Division IV sectional final.
Columbiana moves on to Monday's Struthers District at Cene Park where the Clippers will face the winner of the Windham-McDonald game.
Sattler, whose father, Bill, started at Youngstown State University and made it the Montreal Expos' AAA team, yielded seven hits in increasing his record to 4-1.
Three runs in each of the first two innings made things easier for Sattler.
"Once you get that big lead, your pitcher can pound the strike zone," Clippers coach Shawn Alazaus said. "Billy was then able to go after the hitters and he did a nice job of it."
Early lead
Sattler aided his own cause in the first inning as his single brought home Lorin Dickenson and David Vitko.
A sacrifice fly by Billy Cochenour scored Drew Wagner as the Clippers went ahead 3-0.
In the second inning, Vitko had the big hit, a double, as Columbiana took advantage of two Leetonia errors to increase their lead to 6-0.
"We lost to them twice in the regular season," Leetonia coach Jim Green said, "But coming in I felt confident. Baseball is a strange game.
"Then, they came out big on us and a couple of errors really hurt," Green said. "Plus Sattler pitched a great game. He really had us off balance with his curves."
Alazaus agreed the big lead helped.
"We knew they were a good team coming in, so that was huge," Alazaus said. "The lead took the pressure off us and put it on them."
Dickenson's triple opened up an 8-0 lead. Leetonia put together a rally in the fourth after a run-scoring single by Aaron Valentine and an RBI double by Johnny Williams.
Trailing 8-2, the Bears had runners on second and third vase with nobody out. Sattler fanned the side to snuff out the rally.
"I just stopped worrying about the runners and I got concerned with the batters," said Sattler, who struck out nine and walked none.
The Clippers (21-3) will pitch Sattler again in the district opener.
"This is as far as we got last year," Alazaus said. "So we now want to take it a step further."