43
Fitch baseball outslugs archrival Boardman
By greg gulas
AUSTINTOWN
With both teams coming off games they would rather forget, something was sure to give Saturday between Austintown Fitch and Boardman.
The Falcons rode the five-hit pitching of Noah Suchora and Michael Bobonick, defeating the Spartans, 9-3, at Richard L. Coppola Field.
The second game was called in the bottom of the first.
“Even though we’re not in the same league anymore, it’s still a great win anytime you beat your archrival,” said Fitch coach Wally Ford. “We had two tough games this past week against Beaver Local and West Branch and didn’t play up to our capabilities, so this was a big win for us.”
Zach Miller and Kevin Sierra each had three hits with Miller lacing two doubles and Sierra a triple to pace Fitch’s 14-hit attack.
Suchora walked nine but limited the Spartans to four hits.
“I wasn’t able to locate my fastball in the first inning but I just took a deep breath and found a way to get the ball over the plate,” Suchora said.
The Spartans took the early advantage in the opening inning when lead-off batter Nico DiIanni scored without the benefit of a hit for a 1-0 margin.
The Falcons (11-9) came storming back, backed by the hot hitting of Sierra and Miller, as they registered four hits in each of the next two innings, plating three runs in each for a 6-1 lead.
Boardman (13-5) cut the Fitch lead in half at 6-3 in the third inning, using a DiIanni triple, run-scoring single by Derek Pasquale and throwing error.
Fitch got both runs back in the bottom half of the inning with the key blow a triple by Sierra.
Miller doubled to open the fourth inning and with one out, scored on a two-bagger by Logan Kane for a 9-3 Fitch margin.
“Fitch played an excellent game today so take nothing away from them. We, on the other hand, didn’t do too much right,” said Boardman coach Bob Beam.
“We made two base running mistakes in the first inning that cost us and just didn’t play sound baseball.”