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Falcons find a way
Photo
Howland third basemen Tim Schulman (3) goes to his knees to catch a throw as Austintown Fitch’s Alex Sierra slides into third base during Tuesday’s game.
By BRANDON JUDEH
Austintown
The Fitch-Howland baseball game featured a little bit of everything. There was good, bad and downright ugly in the Falcons’ thrilling, come-from-behind 13-12 victory.
The good — clutch hitting, solid defense and good pitching,
The bad — sloppy defense and poor pitching.
It may sound contradicting, but each team went through a long stretch of both, however, no one could have prepared for the ugly.
Howland (12-4) rallied to score five runs in the top of the seventh inning to take what looked like a commanding 12-9 lead, but that is when the Falcons (8-7) made a rally of their own.
Two walks, a hit batsmen and an error set the stage for Logan Kane and he delivered with the bases loaded.
He slammed a double into right center-field to clear the bases and give the Falcons the victory.
“I was just looking for something straight and over the plate and I got it and swung as hard as I could,” said Kane.
Kane’s clutch hit, however, is what led to the ugly.
The ball ended up under the fence and the Tigers pleaded their case that it should have been ruled a ground-rule double, which would have tied the game and Howland would have had a chance to send the game into extra innings.
After the umpires disagreed tempers flared and a brawl broke out between the teams at home plate.
Punches were thrown and players were tackled as a pile of players lay in a cloud of dust. Moments later order was restored, but the bad blood remained.
“A lot of things were said that I can’t repeat, but it was just crazy, I don’t even know what happened exactly, it’s craziness,” Kane said.
Things did start out smoothly for both teams as Howland’s Kyle Hickman crushed a two run homer over the center-field fence to give his team an early 3-0 lead.
Fitch answered with three of their own in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game.
The Falcons then scored two runs in each of the next three innings to take a 9-6 lead.
Fitch’s Zach Miller led the assault by reaching base four times and knocking in two runs.
“We are starting to get hot, now is our time, we just need to keep seeing the ball well and hitting it well,” Miller said.
Howland tied the game in the seventh when Kenny Pozaga notched an RBI single and took the lead thanks to a two-run double by Corey Hickman.
The Tigers then sent Kyle Hickman in to save the game, but he was unable to convert, ending what was an unpredictable game.
For Howland, Corey Hickman knocked in four RBIs and Kyle Hickman had a double to go along with his homer.
Also having big games for the Falcons were Shane Vitullo with three hits, a stolen base and two RBIs, and Kane with five RBIs.