Howland holds off Boardman

The Tigers scored twice in the first inning en route to a 2-1 victory.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
BOARDMAN -- Defense has been a key to the Howland High softball team's success this season.
Wednesday, the Tigers came up with several key defensive plays and freshman pitcher Abby Nicholas guarded an early lead as Howland ousted Boardman 2-1 in the Division I sectional tournament game at the Field of Dreams.
Howland scored both runs in the opening inning before Boardman pitcher sophomore Kelsey Ford shut the Tigers down the rest of the way.
"Defense has kind of been our key all season," Howland coach Andrea Ferenac said. "When we've played good defense, we've done well; when we haven't, we lost.
"It was huge that we jumped out to the lead in the first inning and then with a couple of good defensive plays, Abby was able to take control for us," Ferenac said.
Advance to semifinals
The Tigers (21-6) advance to the district semifinals next week at the Field of Dreams against a Cleveland sectional winner.
Boardman (9-12) had several opportunities against the Tigers, but couldn't get anything to happen.
"They made the most of their opportunities in the first inning," Boardman coach Bill Amero said. "We had opportunities, but didn't take advantage of them."
In the bottom of the first inning, the Tigers struck quickly.
Carly Sabat led off with a single to right field. Jackie Hill bunted down the first base line, but beat it out for a hit. When Ford threw wildly to first, Sabat took third.
Desiree Sibera grounded to short, but Sabat beat the throw home for the first run. Rachel Bixler singled over third base to drive home the second run.
Ford then settled down and allowed just two hits over the next five innings.
Missed opportunities
The Spartans had runners on second and third with two outs in the first, but couldn't score.
They had runners on first and third in the fifth with one out, but were stopped by a diving catch in center field by Howland's Sabat.
In the sixth, Samantha Peters led off with a walk and was sacrificed to second by Jamie Amero, but Peters tried to go to third on the play and was thrown out to kill the rally.
The Spartans had base runners on in every inning, but scored only once in the fifth after Jaclyn Cunningham singled to lead off and scored on Mallory Hay's double into right-center field.
"I looked at the scorebook and saw that seven of our outs were pop-ups," said Amero. "I told them that we had to stop and I wanted them to be looking at the top half of the ball."
The Spartans outhit the Tigers 6-5 with Hay and Cunningham each getting a pair. Sibera had two of the five hits for Howland.
Ford struck out five and didn't issue a walk while Nicholas had three strikeouts and four walks.
mollica@vindy.com