The Garfield G-Men enjoyed one of their best weeks in Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Grey Tier play, beating league foe Champion, 6-1 last Friday in Warren.
“It was great to see the guys playing baseball the right way. We were making diving plays,” said Coach Michael Paes. “These guys just played baseball and we did a couple of things where we would steal and bunt a guy over and hit him in and sacrifice flies and we laid a couple of sacrifice bunts down and they were just playing really great baseball.”
It marked the G-Men’s (6-9, 4-7) second victory in their last three MVAC Grey Tier contests, as they resumed a league game that they originally started on April 14 but was suspended due to weather conditions. The teams played only 1.5 innings before continuing the game last Friday.
On Friday, Garfield’s offense erupted in the top of the third as four of the first five batters reached base on three singles and a walk.
The bottom of the order sparked the big inning as senior designated hitter Brandyn Bogucki plated a run on a RBI-groundout to second base, freshman center fielder Cole Summers-Wade scored on a passed ball and sophomore third baseman Jared Cardinal laced a RBI-single into right field, pushing the G-Men ahead 3-0.
“The craziest part of it all was that three of the hits were with two strikes and all three of those guys went down really early,” noted the 12-year coach. “Like 0-2 or 1-2 counts and battled back and got a base hit and I think it gave them a lot of confidence.
According to Paes, it was a nice change of pace to see his squad strike first, as more often the G-Men had not been the first team to score in most of their games this year.
He added that a three-run advantage helped senior right-hander Jack Neikirk gain confidence, as the senior delivered his best start of the season in a game that he originally started on April 14 and returned to finish by hurling a complete game, surrendering only one earned run on three hits, issuing zero walks and striking out eight batters.
Although Neikirk surrendered a hit in the opening inning on April 14, he was almost untouchable in his second chance, as he did not surrender a hit against the Golden Flashes through the first five innings last Friday.
“Jack has not pitched a ton of innings this year,” noted Paes. “I thought he looked very good. That first one inning that he had I think he gave up one hit and struck out one batter and just looked like his command was there. That same thing happened, he came in and picked up exactly where I thought he was at that time on April 14, and he just came out and pitched a gem.”
The G-Men gradually increased their lead over the final three innings, scoring a run in each frame as senior right fielder Carson Norton bunted for a RBI-single to the pitcher in the fifth, senior left fielder Mason Andrikanich smoked a RBI-single to center field in the sixth and junior shortstop Nate Baczkowski singled to left field and reached second base on a fielding error as senior third baseman Holden Kissell scored on the same error.
Paes credits the bottom of the order of consisting of senior second baseman Lucas Workman, Andrikanich and Summers-Wade, who collectively went four-for-nine, delivered one RBI, worked one walk and only struck out once, for igniting the offense.
Although Garfield’s hopes of capturing an MVAC Grey Tier championship have evaporated, Paes said that the team still has plenty to play for in their final week of the regular season, as his squad seeks to push their record to over the .500 mark before the beginning of the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division V playoffs, where the G-Men have been seeded 22nd.
“You have to focus on the league games,” he added. “That is what you are looking to try to win at, you want to focus on those games and get those wins and then the non-league games come after that usually but not everyone looks at it that way.”
Following an away-and-home series against MVAC Grey Tier rival Liberty on Monday and Tuesday, a road duel against Cuyahoga Falls on Thursday, the G-Men will host Pymatuning Valley in Garrettsville on Friday evening at 5 p.m., then compete against Bristol in a home duel on Saturday morning at 11 a.m.
