McGhee’s left arm tames Boardman

By Chuck Housteau

WARREN — Warren Harding pitcher Zach McGhee admitted he was nervous prior to his start against the Boardman Spartans in Friday’s Division I sectional championship game.

McGhee (7-1) is the Raiders ace and he was scheduled to match up with a Spartan he was very familiar with from the sandlot leagues.

“[Boardman’s] Pat O’Brien is one of the best pitchers around,” McGhee said. “I’ve gone up against him a lot. Sure I was nervous.”

The lefty hurler walked four batters in the first two innings before settling in and pitching Harding to a 9-5 win over the Spartans.

Harding (18-3) advances to District play against St. Ignatius on May 21 at Cene Park.

After easy wins Thursday in their sectional semifinals Thursday, Warren Harding and Boardman had their aces more than rested and ready for the title showdown.

Both pitchers struggled early although they battled out of jams for nearly five innings.

Boardman and O’Brien had the better of the early frames and led 3-1 heading into Warren’s bottom half of the fifth inning.

An innocent swinging bunt single by Harding’s Zach Chapin to leadoff the inning started a series of bizarre running and fielding plays and miscues that led to a seven-run rally by the Raiders.

“It was strange,” said Boardman coach Jack Hay about the Spartans misfortune in the fifth inning. “Things kind of steamrolled away from us. Once they got going it seemed like we just couldn’t do anything right in that fifth inning.

“We just couldn’t bounce back from it.”

Chapin moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Kevin Preece and then three straight hits, a fielders choice and aggressive base running by Harding saw four runs cross the plate as the Raiders grabbed a 5-3 lead.

Joe Sekula then laced a double that drove home two more runs. Sekula scored from second one batter later when Boardman committed its third error of the inning.

Harding then got a single from Will Frazier and a double by Chapin to score another run and an 8-3 lead.

Boardman cut the lead to 8-5 in the sixth inning and after Harding scored an insurance run in the sixth on an RBI single by McGhee, Jordan Miller came on to pitch a scoreless seventh inning for the Raiders.

“We’ve convinced ourselves that we can battle back against anybody,” Harding coach Ed Shaker said. “They shut us down for five out of six innings but that’s been our M-O all year.

“We’ve been able to produce when we need to.”

Shaker said the Raiders knew they would be in for a battle.

The Spartans had already beaten the Raiders 6-1 early in the regular season.

“We knew this was going to be a battle,” Shaker said. “We got hurt early on with the walks and we knew their pitcher would be tough. We’ve kept our eye on him all year and alot of our guys know him from playing in the Class B league.”

O’Brien (5-2) did play the role of ace for the first four innings and a little defense in the fifth frame might have got him out of the jam.

O’Brien and his teammates did enough with the bats to give the Spartans (12-10) a chance to win.

O’Brien had a double and scored twice as the Spartans cleanup hitter while catcher Dan Popio had a triple and scored on an error on the play.

Rob Boyd and Sam Porter each had two hits and an RBI for Boardman.

“Their pitchers, especially their starter did a nice job,” Hay said. “[McGhee] kept us off balance. He got into his rhythm after a couple of innings. He’s tough. He’s a good pitcher.”

Shaker said he was more than pleased to see those eight runs up on the board after the fifth inning.

“That’s the kind of output this team is capable of,” Shaker said. “We can go through our whole lineup, one through nine, and get that kind of production on any given night.”