WARRIORS CLICKING AT THE PERFECT TIME
By Matt Maher
CANTON, OH – Domination is the word of the day for Beau Alazaus and his West Branch Warriors as they had no problem taking down the Fighting Irish of ursuline by the final score of 6-0.
The Warriors, who played as the road team in this contest, struggled in the 1st inning offensively against Ursuline starter CJ Frasco. Frasco sat the starting 3 down in order including two groundouts to Tucker and Shields. Ursuline got started with an infield single from Anthony Triveri but a groundout and fielder’s choice followed and made things difficult for Luke Kollar who did find a nice single through the gap between 1st and short. With 2 aboard, Thomas Pesa would strikeout looking, giving Alazaus his first K of the day.
West Branch heated things up in the 2nd. After a leadoff fly out to left, Anthony Perry doubled starting a 3 batters hitting streak. Jeremiah Thomas would follow with the first RBI of the game off of a single through the gap between 2nd and short. Charlie Biskup would follow with a single to shallow right that put runners at the corners. Jaxon Robb would step up and hit one to Bednar who would throw him out but Thomas did come home to score and make it 2-0. Frasco would walk the next 2 batters and would have a chance to get out of the inning with Tucker at the plate. Tucker would hit a ball hard up the middle that would ricochet off of Frascos foot and off to right field, allowing 2 runners to score. Frasco would end the inning on another groundout but West Branch had the lead.
Ursuline would continue to struggle against Alazaus, 6 more batters would strikeout through the next 5 innings and only 2 more would find hits for the Irish. The West Branch defense played a huge part in Ursuline’s woes and converted on 5 more groundouts, 3 pop outs and a nice 1-4-3 double play in the 6th. Frasco would blank the Warriors through the 6th inning, and his defense retired 7 more batters via the groundout including all 3 in both the 3rd and 4th innings. Frasco would also earn his only 2 strikeouts in the 6th.
With both teams finding themselves unable to get past the other teams pitching and defense, the 7th inning came quickly with West branch still up 4-0. The Warriors started the 7th with their leadoff batter, Boston Mulinix who would leadoff with a bloop double into shallow left field. After another groundout, Shields stepped up and was hit by a pitch giving the warriors 2 base runners. With the two aboard Alazaus stepped up and brought in his first 2 runs with a big 2-run single into right field. Perry would single after that and that hit would finally be the one to chase Frasco from the mound. Anthony Triveri moved to the bump and got the next 2 batters out with one more groundout and his only strikeout. The Irish could not find a way past Alazaus and the first 3 batters up would be the only 3 faced as Alazaus sat them down in order to finish the game.
Ursuline had very few chances in this game thanks to the dominant arm of Beau Alazaus that threw 7 IP, 0 ER4 H and 8 Ks. Frasco would finish 6.1 IP, 6 ER, 8 H and 2 Ks. Triveri finished with .2 IP, 0 H, o R and 1 K. The Irish defense finished with an impressive 13 groundouts as well.
Both teams showed a lot of promise this postseason but West Branch would be the one to rise to the occasion and earn their spot in the Regional Finals on Friday in Canton. Congratulations to Ursuline on a fantastic season and even better postseason run that ended just a bit shy of where they were hoping and good luck to West Branch in their Regional Finals game on Friday afternoon at Thurman Munson Stadium.
