Red Dragons use early uprising, Srbinovich’s pitching to beat Falcons

April 28, 2016 at 12:00a.m.

By GARY HOUSTEAU

AUSTINTOWN

It almost seemed as if Niles was taking extended batting practice to open the game against Austintown Fitch on Wednesday.

The Red Dragons were spraying line drives all over Rich Coppola Field when they sent eight batters to the plate and scored three runs in the top of the first en route to a 7-4 victory.

Damion Coleman had an RBI double and Cameron Carson brought Coleman in on a sacrifice fly to highlight the first-inning rally.

“We jumped the first guy, he had a lot of the plate and when you throw the ball down the middle of the plate you should get hit,” said Niles head coach Mike Guarnieri. “The second guy did a real nice job of kind of keeping us off-balance a little bit, but all in all I was happy with us offensively.”

Sophomore Cole Constance started the game on the mound for Fitch and made it through the first inning but the hook came quick when he walked and then hit the first two Niles batters to start the second inning. Sophomore Nick Bianco relieved Constance and shut the Red Dragons down completely for the next three innings. Bianco finished his stint giving up just one earned run while striking out eight.

“Cole, the first kid, I think it was his second start of the year and they put the bat on the ball and things weren’t working for him,” said Fitch head coach Wally Ford. “Nick Bianco, that came in, he does a nice job. He’s one of our better pitchers and he kept us in the game and that’s what we asked him, to keep them right there. And we just weren’t able to take advantage of the opportunities.”

Fitch was able to tie the game at 3 in the third inning when Niles starter Tyler Srbinovich gave up a pair of runs on bases-loaded walks with a sacrifice fly by Chris Gerberry sandwiched in between. Srbinovich gave up three walks and hit a batter in the inning.

“Gutsy,” said Guarnieri when he was asked what he thought of Srbinovich’s performance. “The one thing we don’t have to worry about when Tyler takes the mound is if he’s going to give us max effort. Even if his stuff isn’t great or his control isn’t great, he’s going to go out and he’s going to fight and he did that today.”

Srbinovich also had three hits, including a big two-run double in the top of the fifth that extended Niles’ lead to 6-3. Rich Limongi got the scoring started in the inning with a two-out RBI single to break a tie at 3.

Srbinovich walked six and hit a batter before he was relieved after 4 1/3 innings with a 6-4 lead after he walked in another run.

But it could have been worse. Srbinovich left the game with the bases loaded after his sixth walk. He was relieved by freshman Corbin Foy. And when Foy uncorked a pitch that went back to the screen, the runner coming in from third stalled halfway down the line and headed back to the bag. The base runner on first got caught up in between bases and was tagged out. A groundout ended the inning with no further damage.

“[We came back] that’s what I told them,” Ford said. “It was a good ball game, they fought, but in close ball games you have to take advantage of every chance you get. The passed ball, that was a big one. With the bases loaded and you break, you’ve got to go because somebody is going to get hung up.”

Limongi added a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh to provide the final margin of victory for the Red Dragons. Limongi finished with two RBIs.

“We’re a senior-laden group and these guys have been through a lot of games and they have a lot of experience under their belts,” Guarnieri said. “They know the game and they know how to play the game and the good thing about our guys is if we do make an error or mistake they’re going to pick the next guy up. They play together, they play as a team. We’ve played a lot of good competition this year, we don’t get rattled by D-I’s or whatever they throw at us. They’re an experienced group.”

The win improves Niles record to a sparkling 17-2.

“Our goal is to win tomorrow. That’s the goal,” said Guarnieri, who acknowledged that the expectations do indeed get higher as the record gets better. “They understand that, but they also know that the most important thing is the next day and what’s in front of us. And we have a motto that we get better every day and that’s the only thing that matters.”