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Fitch baseball team rallies past Boardman
Falcons fall behind early, but rally to edge Boardman
By Steve WILAJ
BOARDMAN
Austintown Fitch head coach Wally Ford couldn’t help but be concerned.
Not only was his team trailing Boardman by five runs after the second inning on Tuesday, the Falcons were just shut out, 3-0, by the Spartans on Monday.
“After they beat us [Monday] and to fall behind like that, you start worrying a little bit,” Ford said. “But this team will hang in there and fight.”
Fitch did just that, suddenly breaking its slump and cooling the Boardman bats as the Falcons defeated the Spartans, 7-6, at Boardman High School.
After falling behind 6-1, Austintown scored four third-inning runs and added two more in the fourth before the pitching duo of Pat Gerberry and Brian Beany sealed the contest.
“We battled back,” said Gerberry, a senior who earned the victory as he went six innings. “We got a little help from them and the bats were really awake today. We struggled at the plate [on Monday], but we were hitting and then played some solid defense after that.”
The Falcons (7-9, 4-3 AAC) pounded out 11 hits. Gerberry led the way with three hits, while Jarod Kapturasky, Nick Heitzer, Tommy James and Beany each added two.
A Gerberry RBI single and Dom DiFrancesco run-scoring groundout sparked Fitch’s big third inning. The final two runs scored on an error on Nick Bianco’s groundball.
The Falcons then tied the game in the fourth on Kapturasky’s RBI single and took the lead on Gerberry’s run scoring single.
“That’s baseball I guess. It’s a funny game,” Ford said. “We couldn’t hit the ball at all [on Monday] — especially anything hard. Then we came out here and we’re smacking it around.”
Boardman (10-9, 4-2) was hot, initially, as it scored three runs in both the first and second innings. Gino Beato keyed each frame with a two-run single in the first and a three-run double in the second. However, that was all for the Spartans.
Gaven Strines singled to start the seventh, but was thrown out after making too big of a turn around first base. The play — which Ford called “huge” — saw Kapturasky make a quick throw from center field to second baseman Jake Gherardi, who swiftly relayed to first.
“It came back to bite us at the end a little bit,” Boardman coach Joe Gabriel said. “ But we just didn’t execute early and kicked the ball around a little bit. Give Fitch a lot of credit, they hit the ball well today and they’re always well coached. But we just didn’t help ourselves today.”
In addition to Beato’s five RBIs, Bryan Fryda and Lou Cardona each notched two hits for the Spartans.
In all, Gerberry allowed eight Boardman hits, although he threw four straight scoreless frames after the second inning. Beany then earned the save for a scoreless seventh.
“After the first two innings I settled in,” Gerberry said. “I was able to find more control of my curveball and fastball and my defense played great behind me. A lot of credit to them.”