Spartan mistakes are costly

The Spartans gave North Royalton five unearned runs in a 7-1 defeat.
By PAUL TRGOVAC
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
STRUTHERS -- In its Division I district semifinal win on Wednesday night, the Boardman High baseball team did all the little things right to win the game.
In Thursday's district final, it didn't, which led to a championship game loss to North Royalton for the second straight season, this time 7-1.
The only comment from Spartan coach Scott Knox was that he was "very disappointed."
The Spartans gave the Bears three unearned runs in the second inning, wild-pitched home a run in the fourth, and allowed three more runs (two unearned) in the sixth.
Meanwhile, Boardman (18-9) had the leadoff man reach base in five innings, but only managed one run off of three North Royalton pitchers.
Bears score early
The Bears' leadoff man reached on an error by Boardman second baseman Josh Gardner on a tough play.
Scott Hill then bunted and the Spartans tried to cut down the lead runner at second base, but the throw was late.
Chris Eilmann then bunted and was safe when the throw from Spartan pitcher Kevin Sikora was wild, loading the bases. After a lineout, Ryan Scuffert singled in two runs, and the third scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Rick Gatins.
Back-to-back one-out singles by Eric Gradert and Matt Seeman put two on in the Bears fourth and one run scored on two wild pitches in the inning.
Joe Iacobucci led off the Boardman fourth with a single and Anthony Porter walked. The Bears then changed pitchers, taking out Jeff Schultz and bringing in Chris McIntire.
Dom Silvestri hit into a force at third, then Joe Bako hit a ball to the third baseman, who touched the bag there for the second out, and then threw wild to first into the dugout. There was some confusion for the next 10 minutes.
At first, the umpires awarded home to Silvestri on the play, but then ruled that he had not reached second base before the throw was made by the third baseman, moving him to third.
Ed DeLuca grounded out to end the threat.
Missed opportunity
Corey Keller, who had doubled in the third, led off the Spartan fifth with a walk. With one out, Armani Johnson reached on a single and Sikora was hit in the head with a pitch and had to leave the game, loading the bases. Iacobucci then grounded into an inning-ending double play.
In the sixth, Porter had a leadoff walk, then back-to-back hits by Silvestri and Bako loaded the bases. North Royalton went to the bullpen again and brought in Dan Glozer, who struck out DeLuca. Keller hit into a force at second with a run scoring on the play, and Anthony Lavolpa grounded out to end the threat.
The Bears scored three times off of Corey Susany in the bottom of the sixth. Two hit batters, two singles and a passed ball led to the runs.
McIntire got the win, going two innings and allowing one run on three hits. He had no strikeouts and walked a pair. Glozer went two innings for the save, allowing one hit with a strikeout for North Royalton (23-2).
Sikora (7-2) suffered the loss. He allowed four runs (one earned) in four innings, allowing four hits with two walks and three strikeouts. Jeff Olenych finished up the sixth, retiring both batters he faced.