By: Chris Ginley
AVON, Ohio– A damp and cloudy day at Sprenger Stadium in Avon did nothing to dampen the action between St. Edward and St. Vincent-St. Mary. Unfortunately, gray skies, rain, and clouds have become synonymous with early season Northeast Ohio high school baseball, but neither the Eagles or the Fighting Irish let it affect their play. Both coaches stated that weather was not a factor.
“Any opportunity to play early in the season is good. We’re lucky to play on one of the few turf fields in Ohio,” said St. Edward coach Matt Rosinski. St. Vincent-St. Mary’s coach Anthony Boarman shared a similar opinion, when he said, “the weather had no effect on our play. We just had to adjust.”
After a scoreless first inning, the Irish found a way to get to St. Edward starting pitcher Logan Wiggenhorn in a very big way, as the entirety of the Irish lineup either scored a run or got on base. St. Vincent-St. Mary hit just about everything Wiggenhorn threw at them in the top of the second inning. Chris Schar got the hit parade going for the Irish with a three-pitch single, while Garrett Bischof reached base after getting hit on the very next pitch. After Tyler Lattea reached on an infield single, Tyler Morse walked to bring in the game’s first run. Two consecutive singles and another hit batsman brought in three more runs to give St. Vincent-St. Mary a 7-0 lead, which also was the end for St. Edward pitcher Tyler Wiggenhorn.
Corey Stofko was brought in by Rosinski to stop the bleeding, and he did, but not after the Irish got on base twice more with a fielder’s choice and a double by Jacob Connery and Jared Lloyd, respectively. “We have a lot of young pitchers, including one who was making his first varsity start, so a big lead was important,” Boarman said about his team’s big inning.”We haven’t had a lot of success here at this stadium recently, so it was good to have a big lead to build upon throughout the game.”
Slowly but surely, the Eagles started to chip away at the massive lead. Three straight Eagle batters reached base to bring John Sherman to the plate with the bases loaded for the second time in the game. A weak pop out to first resulted in the first out of the inning, but some heads-up base running by Mark Mohnickey, who tagged up and hustled home gave the Eagles their second run of the game to make the score 8-2
The Eagles continued their heads-up base running in the bottom of the fourth, as Mackenzie Wainwright, an Ohio State recruit, attempted a steal of third, and along with a throwing error by Irish catcher Jacob Connery, scored the Eagles third run of the game.
The offense seemed to show its head in the early and the middle innings, but it was quite a different story over the final three innings, which is evident by four combined hits by both teams. It became a pitcher’s duel between Stofko and Jake Pentasuglio, who came in to pitch for the Irish in the bottom of the fifth, and promptly gave up a double and a walk, but settled down to retire the final two Eagle hitters he faced in the inning. Stofko came in to relieve Wiggenhorn after his rough outing and set down nine of the last 11 batters that he faced in the game.
The Eagles tried to rally in the bottom of the sixth, but could only muster up two walks, which is the one thing the Eagles did consistently well throughout the game, drawing at least one base on balls in each inning.
The lack of production was what did the Eagles in this game, as they left 11 runners on base and were only able to get in a runner in scoring position twice in the final four innings and eventually fell to the Irish 8-3. Rosinski said, about his team giving up eight runs in the second inning, “We always try to keep it close. We tried to keep it to a three, four, or five-run lead. It’s tough to come back from a lead like that.”
With the loss, the Eagles fall to 2-1 on the year. Their next game is tomorrow vs. Valley Forge at 5:00 PM at Sprenger Stadium.
With the win, St. Vincent-St. Mary moves to 2-0 on the season. Their next game is March 30th at Copley.
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