Aurora baseball stymies improved Boardman
By Greg Gulas
STRUTHERS
Last season, the Twinsburg Tigers fell to the Aurora Greenmen in the sectional finals.
After both teams won opening round games Tuesday at Cene Park, they’ll face off once again today — only this time a regional berth will be on the line.
Aurora stopped Boardman, 2-0, while Twinsburg posted a 2-1 decision over Austintown Fitch.
Sophomore A.J. Kimes (7-1) tossed a two-hitter, striking out four for Aurora (19-5), while Devin Bradley and Josh Andexler’s back-to-back doubles in the third inning accounted for both Greenmen runs.
“Credit my catcher, Bubba Arslanian, because he called an excellent game today,” Kimes said. “I really can’t recall shaking off any of his signals. I didn’t know anything about Boardman, but felt that once we got the lead an excellent defense and timely hitting would back me up.”
Aurora scored both runs in the third inning when Nick Ely laced a two-out single, followed by the the Bradley-Andexler doubles.
“With A.J. on the hill, we knew we wouldn’t need a lot of runs,” said Bradley, who will play baseball at John Carroll next season. “He [Hudson Widrig] threw me a fastball and left it up. I was focused on keeping my hands loose and was able to drive it into the outfield gap.”
Andexler, who will play for Mount Union next year, hit an outside fastball, driving it the other way into the center field gap.
“Being up 2-0 gave us confidence and we felt that it would stand up with A.J. throwing as well as he was,” Andexler added.
The Greenmen had six hits and stranded six runners overall, leaving the bases loaded in the second frame.
“We have a team that is built for [this] kind of run,” Aurora coach Mike Brancazio said. “Outstanding catching by Bubba, solid defense and timely hitting was the key today. When we had runners in scoring position, we took too many pitches and addressed that. Conversely, when we scored our two runs it was because of timely hitting.”
The Spartans (17-12) went just 4-23 last year.
“Our senior leadership was absolutely awesome all year. Those eight seniors had a tough go of it last year and turned it around this year,” Spartans coach Joe Gabriel said. “We played a good game defensively and had opportunities, but couldn’t connect with runners in scoring position. We start three sophomores and we’re a pretty young team so the future is very promising for Boardman baseball.”
Widrig, who scattered six hits, finished the season with a 7-1 mark.
“We had a great season and outstanding leadership by our eight seniors,” Widrig said. “To get to the district was a great accomplishment. As we look to next year I know that we can contend for the title.”