Friday, March 31, 2017
By Greg Gulas
BOARDMAN
What a difference a day can make.
Less than 24 hours after suffering a 4-0 shutout to arch-rival Austintown Fitch, the Boardman High School baseball team exacted revenge Thursday with a 3-0 shutout over the Falcons at Fields of Dreams.
Nick Augustine scattered five hits and needed just 74 pitches for his complete-game shutout. Luke Cardillo provided the offensive punch with a two-run double in the fourth inning for the Spartans (2-2, 1-1 All-American Conference Red Tier).
“I was just trying to get ahead in the count, throw a first-pitch strike and then work with the batters from there,” Augustine said. “All my pitches were there today. I wasn’t trying to throw hard, just trying to hit my spots.
“My fastball, curve and change were all on point today and it’s always easier to work when you have the lead. It’s nice to get back to .500, but we have a long way to go and just need to continue getting better as we move forward.”
After a first inning that saw Augustine allow two baserunners, the Spartans took a 1-0 advantage in their half of the second. Coleman Stauffer led off with a walk, advanced to second base when Nick Stamp was hit by a Nick Bianco pitch, moved to third on an Alex Cardona walk that loaded the bases then raced home on Mike Melewski’s infield roller.
Augustine then found his groove as he retired 14 of the next 15 batters, including back-to-back-to-back perfect innings.
Bianco went the first 32/3 innings for the Falcons (2-1, 1-1) before giving way to reliever Malik Caige, who was promptly met by Cardillo’s two-run double that made it 3-0.
”The only thing going through my mind was that I needed to get a hit since we only had a 1-0 lead,” Cardillo said. “After being shut out yesterday, the mindset was that we can’t afford a loss. Fitch is our rival, it’s a big game and we needed to deliver.
“It was an all-around team effort, Nick pitched a heck of a game and we couldn’t have done it without him throwing the game that he did.”
The Falcons’ only other scoring threat came in the sixth inning when Jeremiah Papa opened with a single up the middle, moved to second on Robby Russo’s single and when Augustine was called for a balk, both runners advanced to scoring position.
Augustine then proceeded to get Bianco and Chris Gerberry to fly out to end the inning.
In the seventh inning, an infield single by Caige with two outs kept Fitch’s hopes alive, but Augustine got Vinny Direnzo to ground out to end the game.
“Pitching and senior leadership was the difference for us today. Nick came out, threw just 74 pitches, kept them off-balance the entire game and did what a good senior leader does,” Boardman head coach Joe Gabriel said.
“Our pitching was all right the other day, but today we came with a lot more energy and played with a sense of urgency.”
The loss was the first setback for first-year Falcons head coach Joe Paris, who has succeeded Wally Ford.
“On days like this when the wind is blowing in, you have to make solid contact, hit the ball hard on the ground and hit line drives. Today we didn’t do that,” Paris said.
“We made solid contact, but hit the ball in the air and they just hung up for their outfielders to run them down. We couldn’t string anything together today and that’s the reason we were shut out.
“We battled, never quit and stayed in the game. We played good defense and had good pitching, despite some control problems in the beginning. We gave them all three runs when we didn’t turn a double play and mishandled a fly ball. We just have to tighten up our defense and we’ll be fine.”