Mooney ace gives Tigers ‘Fitz’
By Paul Trgovac
Drew Fitzpatrick held Howland to two earned runs in the Cards’ district semifinal victory.
STRUTHERS — Cardinal Mooney High plated one run in the fifth and three more in the bottom of the sixth, and the Cardinals went on to a 6-3 victory over Howland in a Division II district baseball semifinal game at Cene Park Thursday.
Mooney (23-4) will face Poland for the district title today at Cene Park beginning at 5 p.m. for a trip to the regional tournament at Hudson May 30 against the Canton winner.
Howland (14-13) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a sacrifice fly by Jared Kirin, but the Cardinals struck back for two runs in the bottom of the frame. A two-out double down the right field line by Anthony Franceschelli scored both runs, giving Mooney a 2-1 lead.
“He has been our money guy all year long with runs batted in.” said Mooney Al Franceschelli about his son. “He has been a good contact hitter for us.”
The Tigers came tied the score in the second inning. Josh Kostraba doubled to start the frame and scored on a one out single by Adam Shrodek, the first of his three hits.
Neither team managed to score over the next two innings although each had a runner in scoring position in the fourth.
A walk to Tim Marlowe started Mooney’s fifth inning. Then after stealing second, and advancing to third on a ground ball, Marlowe scored the go-ahead run on a groundout by Scott Smith to give Mooney a 3-2 lead.
The Cardinals scored three more times in the sixth inning. The first run scored on a single by Brad Byers and the final two on a two-out hit by Smith, giving him three RBIs.
“He [Smith] has been a real team leader for us. He has a great swing, and hits lefties as well as righties. We have a lot of confidence when he comes up with runners on base.” said Franceschelli.
Howland scored a run in the top of the seventh as three hits and a error plated one run and brought the tying run to the plate with two outs. Drew Fitzpatrick, however, got a strikeout to end the game.
Fitzpatrick (6-2) went the distance, allowing two earned runs on nine hits with six strikeouts.
“Howland is a good team, we knew that they would put the bat on the ball. We knew that we had to keep the leadoff man and the No. 3 hitter off the bases and after the first inning we did a good job of that.” Franceschelli said.
Matt Schultz (2-4) went the distance for Howland in defeat while Vince Villio had a pair of singles for the Tigers.
When asked about Poland, Franceschelli said, “They have a great team. I think that this is a kind of a rivalry. A lot of the kids play with and against each other all summer, so they know each other well. We will go with senior Scott Smith on the mound, but our whole staff is ready so we can show them a bunch of different looks.”