Niles tops defending district champs

By Joe Scalzo | May 14, 2011 at 12:10a.m.

By Joe Scalzo

STRUTHERS

It was almost 10 p.m. Friday night and Niles High baseball coach Mike Guarnieri was watching his team put the tarp down at Cene Park, yelling out to designated hitter Ryan Ifft, “You gotta pull Iffty! You gotta pull!”

It was the third time the Red Dragons had been on tarp duty on Friday. Their Division II sectional final against West Branch had been scheduled as a 4:30 p.m. home game but the rain — and a wind strong enough to blow the tarp halfway off the field — forced them to move it three hours back and 15 miles east.

It then took almost 2 hours and 15 minutes — in a steady rain — for Niles to beat the defending district champions, 10-5, to set up a district semifinal matchup with top-seeded Canfield next Wednesday.

So, let it not be said that Niles took the easy road in this year’s tournament.

“West Branch has a great program,” Guarnieri said. “We went down there and watched them and we were a little bit worried.”

The Warriors (12-14) like to play an aggressive style — particularly on the bases — and Guarnieri was hoping to get a lead early to blunt that strategy.

Niles did, opening up a 10-2 lead after four innings.

“That was huge,” he said. “Getting that lead slows their running game down and it helps our pitchers out.

“So that’s one less thing we had to worry about.”

Shortstop Mike Watson doubled, tripled, reached base four times, drove in two runs and scored twice for Niles (17-5).

“Mike’s been our guy all year at the plate,” said Guarnieri. “He comes up with big hits and he’s terrific defensively at shortstop.”

Watson pitched the final two innings to close the game out after a solid start by Jon Taylor. Because of a back injury, Watson’s only got about 90-95 percent range of motion and is limited to closing out games.

“Jonathan Taylor has been doing it for four years; the kid’s been fantastic,” Guarnieri said.

With the game tied 2-2, Niles scored five runs in the bottom of the third inning, keyed by Watson’s two-run triple.

“We hit the ball good and started doing good,” Watson said. “Once we start doing good, we just roll.”

West Branch chipped away and had a chance to make things interesting in the sixth inning, loading the bases with two outs. But Watson struck out Brandon Carver to end the threat.

Brendan Wells went 4-for-4 with an RBI and two runs for the Warriors, who had won district titles two of the last three years. Scott Rinaldi added two hits and Matt Edie reached base three times.

Tyler Wiery and Jake Foster had two hits and scored twice for Niles, which lost to Canfield 3-2 earlier this year.

“We made a little bit of noise in the conference but that [loss to Canfield] kind of spun us out of the conference race,” Guarnieri said. “It’s been awhile since we beat them but this is a confident group of kids right here.

“We’ll go out and give everything we’ve got next Wednesday, that’s for sure.”