Youngstown All-Stars rebound with romp

July 30, 2016 at 12:08a.m.

STRUTHERS

A two-and-a-half hour rain delay on Friday might have been the right remedy for getting the Youngstown All-Stars back on the winning track.

After racing to a 4-0 advantage on Thursday, they gave up eight runs over the final two frames in an 8-5 loss to Worthington/Kittanning.

A day later, Youngstown built a 7-0 lead in the third inning but followed that up with a knockout punch.

Chad Coles went six innings, allowing five hits while striking out seven as Youngstown defeated Ohio Longhorns, 14-4 in six innings in the PONY Palomino East Zone Tournament at Bob Cene Park.

“I relied on my fast ball at the outset and then went to my curve in the middle innings, even with a full count,” Coles said. “I got a little tired in the later innings, but this team has a bunch of fighters and our offense just kept scoring runs.

“After yesterday’s loss, it was big to come up with a victory tonight.”

In that seven-run third frame, Youngstown sent 11 batters to the plate with doubles by John Mathews and Lake Sankey plating two runs apiece.

Sam Ireland and Jared Kapturasky adding run scoring singles.

The All-Stars made it 9-0 in the fifth inning after Ireland tripled and scored on Mathews’ double. They added a ninth tally on another Kapuratsky single.

“Chad hit his spots and worked ahead in the count and that was big,” Sankey said.

“We have a long road ahead, but we needed to win this game in order to keep going.”

The Longhorns cut the deficit to 9-4 in the sixth inning as their first six batters reached base safely, scoring four times on four walks and just one hit.

Youngstown, which had 14 hits in the game, scored five more times in the sixth inning to put the game away.

Mathews had three hits and four runs batted in for the All-Stars, Sankey added three RBIs, two hits and two runs scored while Dom Bucko and Joe Gunn also added two hits.

The All-Stars also played Pittsburgh North Hills in a game that was not complete at press time.

COLT 15 EAST ZONE TOURNAMENT

The Youngstown All-Stars opened play with a 14-4, shortened five-inning decision over Premier of the Cleveland Diamond League.

A five-run opening inning and six-run second frame staked Youngstown to an 11-1 decision as Bobby Cavalier and Tyler Hurd combined to limit Premier to four runs on five hits.

Five Youngstown batters (Dylan Hetrick, Braden Olson, Matt Senchak, Devin Turvey and Cavalier) each had two hits with Olson, Turvey, Cavalier and Dylan Keller driving in two runs.

Olson scored three times with Hetrick, Turvey, Cavalier, Johnnie Mikos each crossing the plate twice.