IRISH RUN THE NIGHT
By Noah Ricks
STRUTHERS, OH – The Ursuline Fighting Irish showed the true meaning of playoff baseball in their district semifinal Monday night against Alliance. Right from the first inning, the dominance showed no signs of stopping as the Irish ran away with an 8-2 victory at Bob Cene Park.
Ursuline sent in all but one of their batters in the first inning as they jumped up to a 2-0 start with a 3-hit stanza. The Irish overall would compile 10 hits on the evening. They were also led by the spectacular play of CJ Frasco, who would go 4 of 5 and would cash in 4 runs off of 3 hits with an RBI
It would be an 8-0 Ursuline game heading into the bottom of the seventh before Alliance would score. Despite their early struggles, Nate Butt and Diangelo Fisk both combined for 5 of the Aviators’ 9 hits, including a run each to put Alliance on the board late. The Irish, however, were too hot to handle on defense as the fast arm of Frasco at shortstop, as well as a 5 strikeout night from starting pitcher Anthony Triveri, would be all they needed to put it away.
Ursuline (15-12) will now play in the district championship on Wednesday night at Cene Park against Canfield. The Irish will go up against the Cardinals in a highly anticipated rematch of a 7-4 Ursuline win on April 18th. Ursuline showed that despite early season adversity, they would become red hot when it matters most.
