The Garfield G-Men baseball team is beginning to understand what it takes to reach a district title game consistently. They now need to figure out how to win a district championship after losing 11-1 against South Range in the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division III Northeast 2 district final last Wednesday at Springfield High School in Youngstown.
“We made too many mistakes against a really good team and you have to limit it to maybe one error when you are playing real good teams,” said Coach Michael Paes. “We had some walks and too many errors to overcome.”
The Raiders struck quickly in the bottom of the first inning against senior right-hander Eric Geddes, with their first two batters reaching on a leadoff walk and a fielding error by sophomore right fielder Carson Norton, putting runners at second and third with no outs.
Senior right-hander Tyson Tarajack delivered a two-run double to center field, giving South Range an early 2-0 advantage and sophomore third baseman Brennan Klasovsky followed up by hitting an infield RBI-single to shortstop, pushing the lead to 3-0.
After the Raiders added another run on a RBI-groundout by sophomore second baseman Julian Tranovich, Tarajack shut down Garfield’s offense.
Entering the game, the Raiders’ senior had not allowed a run in his last 34.0 innings of work and remained untouchable against Garfield.
“He had four good pitches,” noted the nine-year coach. “We have seen velocity like him but not very often. We have seen a couple of kids that have thrown that hard but he had four quality pitches, He had a slider that is probably as good as I have seen, he has a good curveball and he has got a good change-up that broke in on the hands and when you have a guy in high school throwing four quality pitches, good luck trying to hit that kid.”
Geddes continued laboring against South Range in the second inning, surrendering four more runs on three hits, two errors and one bases-loaded hit-by-pitch batsmen. According to Paes, Geddes fell behind a lot of batters and lacked his usual command, issuing six walks through four innings.
Paes acknowledged that it was practically a repeat of Garfield’s season-ending loss against Lakeview in the district championship during the 2023 season where defensive miscues put the G-Men in an early hole and they could not battle back.
Although Garfield finally snapped Tarajack’s scoreless streak in the top of the fifth inning when sophomore shortstop Brandyn Bogucki hit a RBI-single to left field, trimming the lead to 8-1, it was too late for the G-Men to stage a rally. South Range scored three more runs in the bottom half of the fifth frame to trigger the 10-run mercy rule, earning its fourth consecutive district championship.
“I wish we could have battled back and got it at least closer where you had them thinking or something like that but sometimes you get down,” Paes noted. “Our kids played well all year and I am proud of them and they have done a great job through and through.”
Although it was a bitter ending, Paes still deemed this season to be another successful campaign for the G-Men, advancing to their second straight district championship for the first time since he became head coach and extending Garfield’s streak winning a sectional title to four straight seasons.
Paes said what made it even more special was that once again his team defied the odds to advance to the district championship. Last season the G-Men were counted out early and it was a similar story this year but Garfield proved its doubters wrong.
“If you would have told me at the beginning of the year or the beginning of last two years that you will make it to the district championship two years in a row then I will take it,” Paes said. “That was a very successful year and the kids gave it their best and I think they did a heck of a job all year.”
While Paes is proud of his team reaching another district title game, he added that the team needs to look within themselves and find the solution on how to finally capture a district banner.
Although the G-Men graduate only three seniors, they will lose three valuable players including Geddes, senior center fielder Leo Grandizio and senior second baseman Alex Carter.
“Leo did a great job in center field for us and batted over .300, Alex Carter batted over .400 and he pitched for me and was 6-0 on the year,” Paes said. “We are going to miss those guys and we are going to miss Eric. He is as important a player that I have had since I have been coaching.”
