Russo, Misik power Falcons

May 15, 2019 at 12:05a.m.

AUSTINTOWN

Austintown Fitch head baseball coach Joe Paris is the first to admit that his Falcons have limped into the North Canton sectional tournament, losing three of their final four games after a 14-3 start.

An 11-4 win in their semifinal contest Tuesday over New Philadelphia at Rich Coppola Field will go a long way in getting them back on track.

Lorenzo Russo had two hits, scored a run and drove in four runs and Kenny Misik added two hits, laced a double and scored three times to pace the No. 5 seeded Falcons, who will now meet No. 4 seed Uniontown Lake at 5 p.m. Thursday for the sectional crown

“We batted around in the fourth inning and sent seven batters to the plate in the sixth inning. Offensively, we were clicking today,” Russo said. “We have to keep this momentum going because Lake is a good team. We’ll be ready to go but have to play well if we expect to win.”

The Falcons (18-7) took the early 1-0 lead when Christian Myers led off the inning with a double, later scoring the initial run of the game on a wild pitch.

They increased their lead to 3-0 in the third inning on an RBI single by T.J. Piroch and Russo’s sacrifice fly.

The Quakers (9-19) sent 10 batters to the plate and took a 4-3 lead in the fourth frame on run-scoring singles by Luke Ernest, Mason Ricklic and Brandon Weekley, and a bases-loaded walk to Cade Skinner only to have Fitch regain a 7-4 advantage when they, too, sent 10 batters to the plate and scored four runs, also.

Highlighting the inning was a two-run single by Russo and a run-scoring double by Misik.

“We hit a rough stretch at the end of the season, losing three of our final four games so to break out our bats and score 11 times today is big for us,” Misik said. “We didn’t start out well but picked it up and had two huge middle innings. We need to keep working hard and just stay positive.”

The Falcons added four insurance runs in the sixth inning as the first five batters reached base safely, the first four scored with the big blow a two-run double by Christian Myers, his second two-bagger of the game.

“It’s always a good game when you can put the ball in play and we did that today,” Paris said. “We started off slowly and I was a bit disappointed by our defense in the first inning. Our three pitchers, Pat Coleman, Trey Giannini and Brett Porter threw well and hopefully a win like this will get us back on track.

“Kenny Misik is one of our mainstays and is coming along after an injury. Lorenzo Russo has been in a bit of a slump so hopefully this will get him back on track as well.”

Giannini picked up the win, allowing one hit over 2 2/3rd innings of relief.

Cade Skinner had two hits for the Quakers