Springfield pitchers are strong in 3-1 victory

The Tigers improved to 19-4 with a nonconference victory over Austintown Fitch on Friday.

By CHUCK HOUSTEAU

Vindicator correspondent

NEW MIDDLETOWN — The Springfield Tigers rode the arms of pitchers Travis Richey and Todd Kibby to the Division IV regional baseball final last season.

With Richey and Kibby returning for their senior seasons the Tigers have picked up where they left off last year and are playing outstanding baseball with post-season play on the horizon.

Springfield took another strong step toward its goal of getting to the state tournament with an impressive 3-1 win over Division I opponent Austintown Fitch on Friday.

The Tigers (19-4) got a strong pitching performance again, but this time it was senior Bryan Visingardi (2-0) who earned the victory by tossing six strong innings against the Falcons.

Kibby, a Bowling Green recruit, pitched a one-two-three seventh inning to earn his first save of the season.

“Pitching is always the key to success,” said Springfield coach Bob Beam.

“This was Visingardi’s second start of the year and I think he had Fitch off-balance. “He throws strikes and makes you hit the ball and we have to make plays and we did that today.”

Visingardi’s best effort came in the sixth inning when Jason Bagoly opened the frame with a double. Visingardi hit Ricky Segesto and Chris Miller blooped a single to load the bases.

Visingardi found his composure and retired the next three batters on two popouts and a soft liner to second to escape the jam.

“That was a key situation in the game,” Visingardi said. “I knew I had to just keep making my pitches and hit my spots and try to work out of the jam.

“I only started pitching a couple of months ago so I’m excited to be able to contribute to the team from the mound.”

Beam felt like Visingardi had given enough after that sixth inning “Houdini” act and called on Kibby to close out the game.

“Todd’s a good pitcher,” Beam said. “He’s been a starter since he was a freshman and he’s been in a lot of tough spots.

“He’s a competitor and he’s our guy and there’s no doubt in a game like this that’s who we were going to go to.”

The teams were tied at 1-1 after both scored runs in the first inning.

Visingardi helped himself on the mound by breaking the tie game with an RBI single in the third inning.

Springfield got an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth inning on an RBI pinch-single by Dylan DeJane after Matt Semach reached base on a error and moved up on a single by Brad Ferraro.

Fitch coach Wally Bell talked to his squad for a long time following the tough loss.

“It was time for a heart to heart,” Bell said. “This has been the reason for a late slide. We are not getting the key hit when we need it.

“We’ve been relying on certain guys for hits all year and we can’t keep doing that. We need to get contributions from everyone.”

Fitch pounded out six hits, including a single, double and walk by Bagoly, who has been recruited to play Division I baseball at Kent State next year.

Bagoly is also a candidate to get selected in the Major League Draft in June.

Junior Anthony Savko also had an outstanding pitching performance for the Falcons.