Tall pitcher fans 15 Howland batters

Six-foot-10 senior Scott Moviel pitched Lakewood St. Edward to an 11-1 win.
By CHUCK HOUSTEAU
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
STRUTHERS -- Not even a late arrival to Cene Park could stop Lakewood St. Edward's standout pitcher, Scott Moviel.
The 6-foot-10 senior struck out 15 Howland batters in only six innings as the Eagles ended the Tigers' postseason hopes with an 11-1 victory in the Division I district baseball tournament.
Moviel, who looks like a right-handed Randy Johnson and throws nearly as fast (he topped out at 91 on most of the numerous radar guns in the stands behind home plate), was too much for the Tiger hitters to overcome.
"How do you prepare for something like that," said Howland coach Brent Ulicny. "Really you don't see that too often.
"The kid did a tremendous job. He struggled with his curve ball but we just couldn't catch up with his fastball."
Tigers did get six hits
The Tigers (15-8) did manage to get six singles off of Moviel, including two each by freshmen Joe Aulizia and Matt Preston.
Moviel (5-2) has signed to play at North Carolina State next fall but will more likely be a second to fifth-round draft pick in June's major-league draft.
"I give [Moviel] a D-minus for his performance," said St. Edward coach John Whelan. "Considering we got lost on the way here and we got here late and Scott never got loose -- I hate to say it but it was one of his worst performances.
"He settled in about the third inning but he never got command of his curveball."
By then, Moviel had struck out six batters and after three more in the third had 9.
Howland still in game
But Howland was in the contest.
Thanks to a single by Aulizia and a walk to Ryan Kellar and a couple of wild pitches the Tigers scored a run in the third to tie the game at 1-1. Howland did strand three runners in the first three innings as well as Moviel struggled to get on track.
"We just couldn't get that one big hit," Ulicny. "We could have got those hits maybe we could turn things around. We had runners on third and we just couldn't get them home."
Howland pitcher Greg Patterson (4-2) kept the Eagles (20-9) in check for the first two innings but St. Ed's hitters broke through in the third and fourth innings to score two runs each.
Alex Lavisky belted a two-run double in the fourth that drove in two runners to give the Eagles a 5-1 lead.
Pivotal hit of game
"That was the key hit in the game," Ulicny said. "It was too much for us to overcome after that."
St. Ed's scored a run in the fifth and five more in the sixth to put the game away.
"We had a great season," Ulicny said. "I'm very proud of these kids.
"We lose some key seniors but we have a lot of young players who will be the core of our team next year."