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Eagles fall to Tigers 9-1 to end season

trevor teubner, the meadville tribune, pa.
·4 min read

ALBION — The Conneaut baseball team lost to the Fairview Tigers 9-1 on Tuesday night in the quarterfinals of the District 10 Class 3A playoffs. The Eagles came into the tournament as the sixth seed, with Fairview being the third.

The Eagles starts out strong on offense, as Ashton Headley scored Greg Klink on a double after Klink singled with two outs. Fairview responded quickly, scoring three runs in their half of the inning. After the first, Conneaut wasn't able to respond on offense.

"I think we came out of the gates really strong," said Conneaut head coach Adam Bronson. "I'm very proud of the initial surge on offense from our leaders at the top of the order. After that, I think we just got a little long with our swings and misread the situation."

Klink and Headley led the Eagles' offense. Klink went 1-for-3 at the plate, scoring Conneaut's only run. Headley went 1-for-2 with one RBI.

Alex Wilpula got the start for Conneaut. Wilpula went just under four innings pitched, allowing five earned runs on five hits. Wilpula struck out three and walked four. Wyatt Kornman came in for relief, throwing the last two innings. Kornman allowed two runs on three hits.

"Our two pitchers who pitched tonight got us into ball games and kept us in games," said Bronson. "They do a very good job of competing and getting soft contact. There were maybe three or four hard hit balls that I remember from the entire game."

The Tigers were stout on defense, not allowing any ground balls to roll past the infield. Combine that with the strong performances on the mound and the Eagles had a hard time getting runners on base to close the Fairview lead that steadily built up throughout the game.

"Give credit to Fairview, I thought they had very competitive at bats," said Bronson.

After being held scoreless in the second, Fairview scored five runs in the next two innings to put the game out of reach for the Eagles.

The Conneaut defense committed four errors in seven innings of play, adding on to the difficulties the Eagles experienced at the plate.

"When you give away outs against a good team it's hard to recover," said Bronson. "I don't think the score was indicative of the type of game we could've made it. Take away some of those defensive blunders and I think it's more of a 3-1 type of ballgame."

After this game, Fairview advances to face Harbor Creek in the semifinals of the District 10 playoffs on Friday, as the Eagles season comes to an end.

"I'm disappointed with the way the season transpired," said Bronson. "This year was below our expectations as a program and the players know that, that's nothing new. We have to sharpen up our defensive and offensive approaches a little bit in the summer."

Conneaut finished the regular season at 5-12, with this loss giving them a record of 5-13. Conneaut started out the season 0-7, but played better down the stretch, going 5-6 in their last 11 games.

"If we avoid that sluggish start at the beginning of the year, we're avoiding some the games like this," said Bronson. "We're not getting down and then thinking okay how is this going to turn out? We're confident that this is going to turn around in our favor."

Even with this disappointing season, there is still plenty to look forward to with the talented roster Conneaut has behind it for next year.

"I'm confident moving on with the ball players that are coming back. I'm very confident that there will be that cultural buy-in. I'm really looking forward to next year," said Bronson.

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Conneaut (1)

(AB-R-H-BI) White 3-0-0-0, Wilpula 3-0-0-0, Klink 3-1-1-0, Headley 2-0-1-1, Nottingham 3-0-1-0, Stewart 3-0-0-0, Loucks 3-0-0-0, Perrine 1-0-0-0, Loch 1-0-0-0, Kornman 3-0-0-0. Totals 25-1-3-1.

Fairview

(AB-R-H-BI) Fox 3-1-1-0, Benford 4-1-1-1, Dolansky 2-2-1-1, Szklenski 3-2-0-0, Rzodkiewicz 3-1-1-2, Hawley 4-1-2-1, Stevens 3-0-1-1, Stafford 3-0-1-0, Momeyer 1-0-0-0, Milan 2-0-0-0, Benford 1-1-0-0 Totals 29-9-8-6.

Conneaut 100 000 0 — 1 3 4

Fairview 302 310 x — 9 8 3

BATTING

2B: C — Headley; F — Stafford.

PITCHING

(IP-H-R-ER-SO-BB) C — Wilpula LP 3.2-5-7-5-3-4 Kornman 2.1-3-2-1-2-0; F — Benford WP 4-3-1-1-1-4-1, Stafford 2-0-0-0-1-0, Dolansky 1-0-0-0-3-0.