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Springfield captures another crown
Photo
Cody Pitzo (10) of Springfield keeps his eye on Warren JFK baserunner Vince Infante (4) during their Division IV district championship baseball game Wednesday at Cene Park in Struthers. Nick Russell tossed a complete-game shutout, striking out seven batters, to lead the Tigers to a 10-0 win over the Eagles.
By Brandon Judeh
STRUTHERS
Baseball can be a funny game: one day you dominate, the next you are dominated.
That is what happened to Warren JFK in their 10-0 five-inning loss to Springfield on Wednesday in the Division IV district championship game at Cene Park.
On Tuesday, Warren JFK (17-5-1) had an outstanding pitching performance by Joey Canann.
A day later, Springfield’s (22-5) Nick Russell did the same.
Russell brought the heat early on and his mix of off-speed pitches sent the Eagles packing.
“Early on, I relied on my fastball, then later in the game I used my curve and change-up a lot,” Russell said.
Russell struck out seven Eagles and gave up five hits on his way to a complete-game shutout.
“It feels good to comeback this year and win another district championship, I feel confident going into the regionals next week,” Russell said.
Two big innings did the Eagles in as the Tigers scored three in the second and seven in the fifth to put an end to JFK’s season.
Springfield sent 11 hitters to the plate in the fifth inning and took advantage of two JFK errors on their way to scoring seven runs.
Russell started the barrage with an RBI single that pushed the lead to 4-0. Later in the inning, the three Joe’s — Wrask, Caraballo and Ohlin — each notched two RBI singles to clinch the district title for the Tigers.
The bottom of the Tigers lineup came up huge as the six-through-nine hitters accounted for six RBIs.
“You have to hit all the way through the lineup, you can’t have just two or three guys carry you at this point of the year, because if they struggle then you lose and there is no turning back,” Springfield head coach Matt Weymer said.
Spearheading the offense was the number nine hitter Caraballo who had a hit and three RBIs.
“We came out and did everything we were suppose to do today, we waited for the fastball to come, sat on the curveball and swung away,” Caraballo said.
The Tigers first run came via a suicide squeeze, as Matt Chicase slid underneath the tag at home plate to give Springfield the early advantage.
Caraballo followed with an RBI ground out and Ryan Kohler ended the inning with an RBI single to give the Tigers an early three-run cushion.
“They got some key hits early, at one point each team had five hits, but they had the runs and we didn’t, if we had got some key hits early then it could have been a different game,” Warren JFK head coach Don Lee said.
The Eagles had a chance to gain some momentum back, but stranded two runners in both the fourth and fifth inning.
Wrask finished 2-3 with two RBIs and Russell helped his own cause by banging out two singles and knocking in a run.
The Eagles’ Vince Infante had two hits and Ryan Wolfe ended the season by going 2-2 with a triple and it was his fifth consecutive hit in as many at-bats.