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Fitch holds off Canfield in eight innings
What a relief: Falcons’ Kapturasky
works out of trouble vs. Cardinals
By STEVE WILAJ
CANFIELD
Austintown Fitch’s Jared Kapturasky dug deep the inning before — stranding the winning Canfield run on third base in the bottom of the seventh after the Cardinals tied the game and loaded the bases with one out.
So when the Falcons senior pitcher, trying to hold a one-run lead, found himself in another pickle in the eighth inning — Canfield loaded the bases with no outs — he went to the well once again.
“I was just trying to tell myself to relax — hit your spots, make good pitches, get your arm up and finish everything,” he said. “I just tried to go back to the fundamentals of what we practice all the time.”
Flawlessly dancing out of danger, Kapturasky struck out the next three Cardinals batters in order as Fitch escaped Canfield with a 2-1 extra-inning victory in Wednesday’s cold and rainy contest.
“Canfield always has a nice team and they play hard,” Falcons coach Wally Ford said. “So any time you get a win with them, it’s great. Especially a 2-1 ballgame this early in the year, that was a nice game. We got into some trouble there in the seventh and eighth, but battled through it.”
Fitch (2-0) took a 1-0 lead into the final inning after senior starter Derek Gunter logged six scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and striking out five. He was removed from the game because of his pitch count (91), as well as the less-than-ideal weather.
Kapturasky entered for the bottom of the seventh and Canfield (0-4) welcomed him with Joe DeLucia and Ryan Cheslik singles, while Ryan Head reached safely after a throwing error on his bunt. The Falcons reliever then notched a strikeout and walked Anthony Vross to plate the tying run, before a strikeout and a lineout ended the inning.
Fitch regained the lead in the top of the eighth when Chris Gerberry was walked by Anthony Joseph with the bags full. That set up Kapturasky’s final escape-act, which came after a Joey Machuga walk and singles by DeLucia and Pete Hernandez.
“I thought that we battled, but eventually we just had to have somebody to be able to come through and tie the game or win the game,” Canfield coach Matt Koenig said. “We didn’t have that and obviously Jared Kapturasky is a big part of that. He’s throwing hard, it’s getting wet — but he’s a heck of a pitcher and he really rose to the occasion.”
Machuga, Canfield’s starter, nearly matched Gunter’s stellar performance. He went six innings as well, surrendering just one run on six hits. Fitch’s lone run off the senior Cardinal came in the top of the third when Jack Gherardi and Kapturasky notched back-to-back doubles with two outs.
“It’s a good way to pull through on this cold and rainy day,” Gunter said. “I struggled in the second inning. But after that I started feeling a little more confident and just feeling good.”
Gunter didn’t feel so good for a moment in the sixth inning, though, when Machuga launched one deep over the left field fence. However, it narrowly sailed wide of the foul pole.
“It scared me a little bit,” Gunter said. “I just looked at it and was thinking ‘Please go foul, please go foul.’”
Nick Bianco finished with two hits for Fitch, while Canfield is still looking for its first win after losing three games in Myrtle Beach, S.C., last week.
“It was the same case in Myrtle Beach for three days where we we’re getting guys on-base, but we’re just not able to punch them across,” Koenig said. “Hopefully that’ll come with a little more playing time.”