Boardman’s season ends with semifinal loss to Stow-Munroe Falls

BOARDMAN — The Boardman baseball team had plenty of chances, but the big hit never came.

The Spartans got at least two runners on base in four of the first five innings, but they couldn’t come up with a game-breaking at-bat. That resulted in a 4-1 loss to Stow-Munroe Falls in a Division II district semifinal on Tuesday at Boardman High School.

“That’s kinda been our MO all year. We’ve struggled to get that big hit, struggled to get that two-out base hit,” Boardman head coach Joe Lendak said. “Got guys on base and got in situations where we could put runs on the board, and we haven’t seemed to have gotten that hit as often as we would have liked.”

The Bulldogs (12-16) loaded the bases with one out in the first inning. Will Marzec opened the scoring with an RBI single to left to get Stow on the board.

In the second, Ivan Rudiak was hit by a pitch with one out and Mason Nawrocki followed with a single to left. But Stow pitcher Josh Moore got a strikeout and groundout to get out of the inning.

A pair of singles and a walk loaded the bases again for the Bulldogs in the third, and Jacob Garcia made it a 2-0 game with a one-out sacrifice fly to right. The Bulldogs plated two more in the fourth after Parker Mihilyov drew a leadoff walk and Aiden Clark reached on a fielding error. Jake Harrington drove both of them in on a single to center, pushing the Stow lead to 4-0.

Boardman finally broke through in the bottom of the fifth.

Vince Butto walked, Grayson Eicher singled to right and Tyler Kirlik reached on a fielding error to load the bases with nobody out.

The wind took a shallow fly from Landon Whippo and pushed it toward second base. The ball popped out of a diving second-base mitt and it resulted in a fielder’s choice, but Butto came into score with runners on first and second. Mason Nawrocki walked to load the bases again with two outs, but Stow’s Ben Bee got a groundout to limit the damage.

Boardman never built enough momentum over the final two innings to threaten the Bulldogs.

Collin Resetar got the start for the Spartans (14-7). Resetar took the loss after allowing four runs – three earned – on six hits and three walks in 3 1/3 innings of work.

Ryan Neifer came in to relieve Resetar. He threw the final 3 2/3 innings, only allowing one hit.

“Our pitchers, Collin and Ryan, they’ve done a great job all year, and they’ve kept us in games all year,” Lendak said. “Usually, we helped them out at least enough. Today, we didn’t do that job.

“Neifer did a great job coming in and keeping us in that game for as long as he did. And we had a couple opportunities with the bases loaded and we needed to chip away a little bit more and put pressure. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that.”

The Spartans had a veteran group. There were eight seniors on the team who established the work ethic around the program and helped put together a winning season this spring.

“I’ve known a lot of those guys since seventh grade, and I’ve coached them up until this point. This is a special group to me, especially as a first-year coach,” Lendak said. “Those guys mean a lot to me, and they know I’d do anything for them. I just appreciate everything they did for Boardman baseball.”

It was a turnaround year for the Spartans, who finished 14-7. Lendak took over the program in the offseason after Boardman went 9-14 last year.

“We brought a lot of guys back,” Lendak said. “We relied on a lot of young pitchers last year and we brought all those guys back, and they had an excellent year for us. Obviously, we fell a little bit short of our goal today, but we had an excellent season. Winning the league this year was one of our goals, and we managed to accomplish that.

“I love these guys to death, and this group has really played well together. A little disappointing today, but that’s how the game goes.”