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Rain, then pain
Roth Bros. sidelined from state tournament with 8-5 loss
By John Bassetti
STRUTHERS
Photo
Greg Krieger works on the field during the rain delay Wednesday niight.
Rain-rain, puddles-puddles, mud-mud.
Everything but enough runs-runs for Roth Brothers, which became the third Class B League casualty of the day as the Connie Mack state baseball tournament continued.
A two-hour rain delay that interrupted the top of the fifth inning Wednesday night wasn’t welcomed by either team, but the Ohio Yankees — leading 7-5 at the time — could have eaten their way out of a victory if they had more down time to spend at the concession stand instead of the dugout.
Roth eventually lost, 8-5, joining Dave Sugar and Wharmby’s Sports as other Class B teams to bite the dust.
However, three other teams remain alive — Rondinelli, 1080 Media and Astro Falcons.
Despite the defeat, however, Roth manager Matt McGivern said his team has been extended an invitation to advance to the Connie Mack regionals in Cincinnati.
When the rain delay resumed, Jimi Gantose replaced starter Andrew Schuhle on the mound for the Yankees. With one out and Max McDowell and Joe Diloreto on second and first, respectively, Vince Falconi got a broken-bat single as Roth’s first after-rain batter. But then Gantose struck out the next two Roth batters to end the threat.
“That would have been the third time he [Schuhle] faced their order and that would not have been a good deal for us,” said Ohio Yankees manager Ike Isaacs, who noted that Schuhle is a “soft” thrower whose range of pitches is 60-70 mph instead of 80-90 like others.
With Gantose facing Roth’s big bats, Isaacs felt the chance to throw off Roth’s aggressive swinging was greater.
“We thought the ball would come in slightly different,” Isaacs said of Gantose’s delivery.
McGivern felt the delay, as well as the top of the fifth, was the turning point.
“The weather broke our momentum. We thought we had their pitcher on the ropes, but the rain hurt us. Our guys were still upbeat [after the break] but we just couldn’t get runners across after that.”
Roth got on the board first when Max McDowell’s groundout allowed Brock McGivern to score. McGivern tripled as Roth’s second batter of the game.
The Yankees went through its batting order when they scored five runs in the bottom of the first inning.
The Yankees tied, 1-1, when Shane Wheeland tripled home Anthony Calabrese. Wheeland scored on Trevor Oldham’s single to snap the deadlock, then Oldham tallied on Nate DeBick’s grounder up the middle and DeBick scored on Forrest Johnson’s triple.
The Yankees finished with another run when Johnson crossed the plate on Andy Kefalos’ groundout.
The Yankees went up 6-1, in the second when Oldham line-drive single over shortstop Brock McGivern scored Andrew Mercer. After 12/3 innings, starter Matt Palo was replaced by Joe Diloreto.
Roth picked up two runs in the third inning when McGivern’s triple scored Matt Harmon, followed by a passed ball that gave McGivern an opportunity to rush home. The Yankees registered a seventh run when Johnson safely reached home on Brendan Taylor’s fielder’s choice.
Roth got two runs back in the fourth when Cam Onderko’s triple plated Vince Falconi and Nick Cubarney. Onderko, however, was left on third base when Tommy Quealy grounded out to end the inning with the Yankees still leading, 7-5.
The Yankees tacked on an eighth run in the bottom of the sixth after Jack Lente’s leadoff double, followed by successive groundouts by Calabrese and Wheeland that pushed Lente home.