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McDonald rallies back to defeat Lowellville, 11-7
The Blue Devils will meet Springfield today for the district title.
STRUTHERS — The third time was a charm for the McDonald High baseball team against Lowellville.
This time, the Blue Devils beat their Inter Tri-County League Tier Two rivals in Tuesday’s Division IV district semifinal baseball game at Cene Park Two. The Blue Devils, behind 7-3 at the end of the first inning, rallied to post a 11-7 victory.
“It wasn’t the first time we had to come from behind to beat Lowellville,” McDonald coach Dan Williams said. “We were down 6-3 and got four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to win the league title.”
The Blue Devils (17-4) will now meet ITCL Tier One champion Springfield for the district title today at 7 p.m. on Cene Park One. The winner advances to next week’s Elyria regional.
An error, pair of singles and a double by Anthony Raschilla gave McDonald a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
Right back came the Rockets (18-7) in the bottom half of the inning. Lowellville sent 13 players to bat as they scored seven runs on four walks, four errors, three passed balls, two hit batters, stolen base and singles by Dante Abbas and Vince Travaline.
“I was disappointed by the way we played in the first inning,” Williams said. “We made four errors, but I knew there was a lot of baseball left to play and that the kids could get the hits we needed to score runs and get back into it.”
McDonald’s Nick Gatta, came on (3-1) in relief of starting pitcher Raschilla in the first inning and got the Blue Devils out of the jam. He worked through the sixth inning, with six strikeouts, to pick up the win.
“I was a little worried coming in, Gatta said. “I hit the first batter, then got the next guy out and that gave me confidence. I didn’t want this to be are last game.
“Everybody on the team picked it up after the first inning,” Gatta said.
McDonald’s Mike Thomas tripled and Bill Lowry singled him home in the fourth inning to cut the deficit 7-4.
The Blue Devils took the lead in the sixth as they scored four times on a walk and singles by Mike Gatta, Nick Gatta, Thomas, Bill Rees and Anthony Fossacca.
In the top of the seventh inning, a triple by Rees, a single by Fossacca, a double by Nick Gatta and single by Raschilla gave the Blue Devils two insurance runs.
Mike Gatta came on relief of Nick Gatta in the bottom of the seventh inning. A walk, pop out to shortstop and two more walks loaded the bases for Lowellville. But the next two batters flew out to center field and popped out to the pitcher to end the contest.
Nick Gatta threw 91 pitches before he was relieved.
“Nick pitched a great game for us,” Williams said.
Mike Gatta, Raschilla, Thomas, Rees and Fossacca each had two hits for McDonald.
Travaline hit a pair of singles for the Rockets.
miller@vindy.com