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Howland falls to St. Ed’s in five innings at Cene
By Jon moffett
Struthers
Howland High baseball coach Rob Thompson said it was a combination of inexperience and the Tigers shooting themselves in the foot that led to their exit from the Division I tournament Wednesday.
The Tigers (15-8) committed six errors in a 14-4 loss to Lakewood St. Edward in five innings at Cene Park. Thompson said that was the biggest factor in a game he thought the Tigers could win.
The Tigers led 3-1 entering the third inning, but that’s when the errors started.
“They’re a very good team, but I think we came out and set the tone for ourselves, and then just bit ourselves in the rear end,” Thompson said. “If we don’t make those errors, this is a very close game and I still believe we had a shot at winning it.”
The top of the third inning started with a single by Patrick Egan. He then came around to score as one of four runs by the Eagles. Howland responded with a run in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single by Josh Davis, driving in Adam Shrodek.
But the fourth inning spelled the end for freshman pitcher Chris Maze (5-2) and the Tigers. The Eagles erupted for six runs on nine hits.
“That inning is what really hurt us,” Thompson said. “That’s when I started to see heads hanging a little bit. Maze, I think, let it get in his head a little bit, and that’s the first time all year I’ve seen him get rattled.”
Thompson gave Maze a vote of confidence for the Tigers. Despite losing in the tournament, the Tigers will continue its regular season with a home game against Poland today at 5 p.m.
Thompson said he and his team will have fun with a final All-American Conference game, and hope to finish second in the league. He said he is proud of his team, which improved from 13-13 last season.
“We were very focused, and we were ready to play this game,” he said. “We’ve had a great year. Last year we were [.500] and fourth in the conference. So we’ve obviously made some strides. “We’ve got a lot of solid young guys coming back.”