McDonald rallies to stay unbeaten
By Ryan Jones
MCDONALD — Even though McDonald’s potent offense stumbled in the first three innings and the Blue Devils trailed 2-0, coach Dan Williams knew his team was game to rally.
McDonald’s offense erupted for seven runs in the fourth inning as the Blue Devils toppled Lowellville, 8-6, to remain perfect on the season.
“I knew we had a big inning in us,” Williams said about his team who improved to 9-0 overall and 7-0 in the ITCL Tier Two. “Not much happened for us in the first three innings; we only had one hit. But we were patient enough to stay focused and got it going in the fourth.”
Anthony Raschilla doubled to lead off the inning and Alex Baker followed with a walk. Center fielder Mikey Thomas smoked a double to left that scored Raschilla to give the Blue Devils their first run, 2-1.
After David John walked to load the bases, Bill Lowry hit an RBI groundout through the box that pushed Baker home. Lowry advanced to second base and Thomas scored when Lowellville’s throw to first base got away.
Mike Evinsky reached to load the bases, and Devin Bansberg launched a grand slam homer to left to give McDonald a 7-2 lead.
Williams said he was hoping for base hit with the bases loaded and no outs when Bansberg delivered.
“He [Bansberg] reached up and hit it hard,” Williams said. “We were prepared to have the runner on third tag up, but the ball carried. Devin’s been hitting the ball well for us. Even though he hits in the nine hole he’s been like an extra lead off hitter the way he swings the bat.”
The Rockets refused to fold as Drew Skelly hit a two-run homer in the top of the fifth to cut the lead to 7-4.
But Bansberg, who went 3-for-3 with five RBIs, singled home Thomas in the bottom half of the fifth to push the lead to 8-4.
The Rockets scored one run in both the sixth and seventh innings, and had runners on first and third in the final frame before a strikeout ended their comeback.
Baker tossed five innings of four-run ball to earn the win for McDonald and Zach Puntel pitched two innings in relief.
Thomas had two runs, two hits and one RBI for the winners.
Dante Abbas went 1-for-1 with two walks, two RBI’s and a sacrifice fly to lead Lowellville.
The Blue Devils play Chaney today before facing ITCL rival Western Reserve (which is in second place Tier Two) on Saturday.
“Our first goal this season is to win the ITCL,” Williams said. “But we can’t look past anyone and we want to keep our undefeated season alive against Chaney. If we put together solid defense and pitching and get timely hits we’ll win a lot of games the rest of the way.”