Fitch, Mooney among top seeds in baseball postseason

May 12, 2014 at 12:00a.m.

The high school baseball sectional semifinals begin today with all eyes on Austintown Fitch as the No. 1 seed in the Division I East bracket.

Cardinal Mooney (15-2) is the top seed in Division II with Springfield (20-4) moving up a division and earning the top seed in Division III and Inter Tri-County League foes Western Reserve (13-5) and Jackson-Milton (11-4) garnering the top two seeds in Division IV.

There is an East and West bracket in Division I and at the time of the draw, the Falcons were 9-8 overall, including 6-4 overall against Division I foes.

Aurora is the No. 1 seed in the west bracket.

The Falcons are led by former player Wally Ford, currently in his 15th season at the helm and the second-winningest coach (Rich Coppola is the all-time leader) in program history.

He notched his 200th career coaching victory last season and has led Austintown Fitch to league titles as members of three different conferences — the Steel Valley Conference, Federal League and currently in the All-American Conference.

Howland is the No. 2 seed in the East bracket.

The Division II tournament gets underway on Tuesday and Cardinals coach Al Franceschelli is hoping his team is peaking at the right time as they eye defense of last year’s sectional and district championships.

“The Division II tournament is as competitive as any of the divisional tournaments because each team has a bevy of talent on their squads. We played West Branch and they’re an excellent team while Lakeview pitcher Johnny Lemaster might be the top twirler in our division,” Franceschelli said. “As for us, we’ll go as far as our pitching takes us. They’ve been excellent all season long.”

Seniors Gino DiVincenzo (5-0) and Joe Cunningham (4-1), and sophomore Andrew Armstrong (5-0) have combined for 14 of their victories with third baseman Drew Beck (.456), shortstop Jon Saadey (.455) and second sacker Chris Lowery (.385) providing strong offensive support.

Centerfielder Harrison Wagner (.350) covers a lot of ground to ensure the team remains strong up the middle.

“This is a very confident team heading into tournament play. We were regional runners-up last year and everyone has worked hard in the off-season with a goal to better last year’s finish,” DiVincenzo said.

Poland (No. 2), West Branch (No. 3) and Canfield (No. 4) round out the top seeds in Division II.

In Division III, Sean Durkin is in his 17th season as head coach of the fourth-seeded seeded Ursuline Fighting Irish (7-10).

They’ve won the last three district titles and nine overall during Durkin’s watch, advancing to the state final four a season ago.

If they expect to get out of the Struthers district then they’ll have to get by top-seeded Springfield Local — a team that was one student over the limit at the start of the school year. Otherwise, the Tigers would have stayed in Division IV.

The Tigers were Division IV state runners-up last year and are 82-22 under coach Matt Weymer’s watch the past four seasons.

By advancing to two state championship games and adding a regional title appearance already under Weymer, they’re definitely tournament-tested.

“It will be a little different competing in Division III this year and once again will be highly competitive with Ursuline’s run of titles leading the way. We both went to state last season and if we expect to get back there again, then our pitching will be the key,” Weymer said.

The Tigers feature three pitchers, James Hillyer (6-1, 1.25); Dalton Donachie (5-1, 2.41) and Jordan Peterson (4-1, 1.24) with stingy earned run averages. Catcher Hunter Snyder (.559, 22 RBIs) is the team leader with 12 doubles and Ryan Kohler (.485) has a team-best 29 RBIs.

The Fighting Irish will enter play with a most un-Ursuline-like 7-10 mark.

“We’ve been in every game this year and while pitching and defense has been our strength, if we could find a way to string some runs together then we can win some tournament games,” Durkin said.

Dion Felger (3-2) is the ace of the staff while Vinny Lucente, just a sophomore, has pitched well of late yet but has a couple of no-decisions to show for his efforts.

Felger and Michael Montalbano are the No. 3 and clean-up hitters, respectively, and players Durkin looks to for making things happen offensively.

“Both Dion and Michael have hit for us down the stretch. When they’ve hit, we’ve played well and we will need them to kick-start us in the tournament,” Durkin said.

Girard Indians (No. 2) and South Range (No. 3) round out the top four seeds in the division.

Western Reserve and Jackson-Milton (11-4) share the Division IV spotlight.

The Blue Devils won the league’s lower-tier with a 13-1 mark and last week, defeated the Blue Jays, 7-1 to secure the league’s outright title.

“We stress team but have had several outstanding individual performances this season,” Western Reserve coach Ed Anthony said. “Three years ago we went to the regional finals and that’s the furthest any Western Reserve baseball team has ever advanced. Our goal is to go where no other team before us has gone.”

The Blue Devils rely on the arm of Nick Allison and bat of second baseman Walker Marlowe.

Allison, who also played quarterback on the football team, is 7-0 with a 0.87 ERA while Marlowe, just a sophomore, is hitting .467.

Outfielder Dan Zilke (.355) provides offense while first baseman John Timko (.301) is the cornerstone of the infield.

Jackson-Milton has won six of their last seven contests and if the Bluejays expect to advance to district play, then pitching will be the key.

Nick Woloschak (2-1, 0.74) and Nate Clark (2-1, 1.74) are the two aces and J-M sports a stingy 2.21 team ERA through 15 games.

“Pitching has been our strength, but we’re also strong defensively,” Bluejays coach Kevin Hogue said. “We also have four players currently hitting over .400. Freshman pitcher Eric Ostrowski has won four games and has a save so he will be counted upon in tournament play as well.”

Clark, who also plays third base, is hitting at .510 and designated hitter Matt Johns (.400) and outfielder Scott Mitchell (.400), also a freshman, provide much-needed offensive spark.

District play begins May 19 at Cene Park with the Division I tournament kicking off all of the action.