PARMA HEIGHTS, Ohio- The Holy Name Green Wave looked forward to a lengthy tournament run and it would start with a game against a Clearview Clippers squad that featured ten Juniors on the team. The Clippers would show no fear early but would ultimately fall to the Green Wave to a final score of 10-3.
Jack Stolar took the mound for the Green Wave and after a few shaky innings, he would find his groove and pitch a complete game win for Holy Name.
Clearview scored all three of their runs in the first two innings. After getting the bases loaded in the first with no outs, Dakota Stout would draw a walk to bring home Jacquez Moon. Justyn Lilly would follow that up with a double play that brought home Evan Berrios to make it 2-0 before the inning ended.
In the second inning, a Petrov double would bring home Jordan Tiller, who was hit by a pitch to reach base and reached second off of a sacrifice bunt by Avery Cruz. The 3-0 start was positive for Clearview against a tough pitcher in Stolar, but they couldn’t carry the momentum they built early throughout the whole game.
Two early walks would help Holy Name get on the board in the second inning. Chris Iorio would ground into a double play that would create some silver lining for the Green Wave, as he advanced Pat Sullivan to third. A throwing error by Andrai Wright on a routine ground ball to third base allowed Sullivan to score on a Zach Sobota at-bat, making it 3-1.
Matt Springer would reach base via walk in the fourth and advance to second on a throwing error. Liam Cunningham would find the gap in between second and third base to bring home Springer for an RBI single, making it 3-2. Aidan Hickey reached base on a bloop single to shallow center field which caused Cunningham to be thrown out on the force at second base, as he was stuck in no man’s land waiting to see if the ball was going to be caught or not. Hickey would steal second base to immediately put himself in scoring position. Following that, Clearview’s catcher Kash Warren made a costly mistake when he attempted to throw out Hickey on a throwback to second base. The ball sailed into center field and Hickey took third base with ease. Nick Jablonski would find the same spot Cunningham did earlier in the inning and with his RBI single into left field, the game was tied at three in the third inning.
The Green Wave would take the lead in the fourth inning after a few walks and a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt loaded the bases for Aidan Hickey. Hickey made Clearview’s pitcher Lee Baker work the plate and unfortunately for Baker, his day would come to an end following the Hickey walk on a close pitch. Baker would leave the game after 3 1/3 innings pitched and would end up allowing five earned runs in his Varsity pitching debut.
Justyn Lilly entered the ballgame and gave up a sacrifice fly to right field by Jack Stolar, who’s efforts brought home Matt Springer to make it 5-3 going into the fifth inning.
RBI’s by Sean Springer (2 RBI’s), Cunningham and Hickey (2 RBI’s) would complete the game’s scoring in the fifth and sixth innings to make the final score 10-3.
Starting pitcher Jack Stolar, who pitched a complete game while only allowing three earned runs on the day, had this to say about his performance:
“I got the same approach going into every game: Stay confident, whether I’m throwing strikes or not. I always got the mindset to stay aggressive and I was sticking with my pitches.”
Holy Name’s Head Coach Tim Carter expounded on his team’s offensive effort that picked up as the game went on:
“We chipped away they. They (Clearview) made some nice defensive plays early on to keep us down and then we started to have a little better situational hitting, moving runners. We had a couple sac flys, couple groundouts with less than two outs and then we got a couple big two-out hits with runners in scoring position.”
Clearview finishes their season after today’s loss, but Head Coach Dennis Pihlblad looks forward to the future.
“We got ten juniors on the team, so these kids, they’ll battle back. These kids were right in the game early. I was very proud of the effort. We just need to make more plays and we didn’t.”
Holy Name advances to take on Padua in the next round of the OHSAA Tournament after winning their Sectional Final today.
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