Astro Falcons muzzle Terriers for title

By Greg Gulas

sports@vindy.com

STRUTHERS

The finale of the Bob Cene Memorial Tournament was over almost as soon as it began. The Astro Falcons scored nine times in the opening inning of Sunday’s 10-0 victory over Stark County Terriers at Bob Cene Park.

Winning pitcher Bryce Warwick allowed two hits over four innings.

“Even though you are up 9-0 in the first inning, we’re still thinking and playing as if the game is scoreless,” said Warwick, who had four strikeouts but struggled by walking four batters. “I have a great defense behind me so all I wanted to do was get ahead in the count, throw strikes and make them put the ball in play.”

The 10 runs scored marked the fourth consecutive game the Falcons scored in double digits, totaling a 65 runs while allowing just 12 for a 7-0 tournament record.

“A lot of teams look at a midseason tournament as just another tournament, but this is our Holy Grail so to win it the way that we played over the past four days is a really great feeling,” Astro manager Don Pletcher said.

The Falcons sent 13 batters to the plate in their first at-bat. They scored nine times on four hits. The Terriers helped by committing two errors, hitting a batter and throwing a wild pitch.

Brayden Beck’s bases-loaded double gave the Falcons a 3-0 lead.

“I was just looking for a good ball to hit,” Beck said. “I saw a fastball, was thinking fastball and was able to drive it into the gap.”

Chase Franken finished with three hits, scored twice and drove in a run.

Dominic Mongiardo and J.C. Philippi had the two hits for the Terriers.

Semifinals

Astro Falcons 11,

Dura Edge 3 (6 innings)

Connor Rakow went five innings and scattered five hits to pick up the win. Rakow added two hits, Lucas Gulczynski had two, including a double, and scored three times.

Braeden O’Shaughnessy and Jake Bowen each had a hit, an RBI and run scored for DuraEdge.

Stark County Terriers 4,

Knightline Embroidery 2

Dalton Frey and J.C. Philippi each had two hits and a run batted in to pace Stark County.

Zach Maskulka, John Ritter and Brett Bobin registered the Knightline hits.