Although the Garfield G-Men baseball team cruised through the first four frames, their lead was cut to one run after a two-run fifth inning by Bristol. The G-Men responded by scoring six runs in the final two innings, defeating Bristol 9-2 in the season opener last Saturday afternoon at Garrettsville.
“We responded well pretty much the whole time,” said Coach Michael Paes. “We took that lead and they made it a one run game; it was a quick response from our guys to put it in play and do what we needed to do get comfortable.”
The G-Men (1-0, 0-0) had built a 3-0 lead through the first four innings thanks to some timely situational hitting and keen baserunning. That lead dwindled to 3-2 in the top of the fifth inning when the Panthers scored two runs on three hits off freshman right-hander Jared Cardinal, who had come on in relief of junior righty Garret Warnick.
Bristol’s rally started with one out as the Panthers put runners at first and second with consecutive base hits. Senior second baseman Croc Thorpe delivered the Panthers’ first clutch hit of the day when he doubled on a sharp grounder down the RF line, trimming the lead to 3-1.
During an at-bat by senior shortstop Diesel Williams, junior catcher Brock Pesicek overthrew Cardinal on a routine throwback after a pitch, allowing senior center fielder Jonas Miller to score from third base, trimming the lead to 3-2.
Cardinal avoided any further damage by inducing a groundout to first base by Williams and then struck out senior right-hander Kaiden Kohler looking to end the threat.
After having their lead cut to one run, the G-Men responded by scoring four runs on three extra-base hits, beginning with a leadoff double to left-center field by senior shortstop Aidan Hill.
“Being a senior and a leader, you have to lead innings off like that. It will strike up the team to get more hits after that,” said the California University of Pennsylvania commit.
Senior first baseman Colin Cunningham plated Hill by slashing a RBI-double into shallow left field and Pesicek avenged his throwing error by swatting a RBI-double into left field, pushing Garfield’s lead to 5-2. The G-Men added another run as Pesicek scored from third base, on a wild pitch.
“They did great. That’s what you ask for,” noted the 11-year coach. “You get a couple of hits in a row and then string them together; it is a great response.”
Following a rocky fifth inning, Cardinal shut down the Panther’s offense in the final two innings and Hill continued to be an offensive spark plug for Garfield, driving home two more runs on a single up middle during a three-run sixth inning.
Hill paced Garfield by going three-for-four with two doubles and three RBIs.
“I felt pretty relaxed,” Hill said. “Through the few scrimmages I struggled a little bit but then finally settled in on Saturday and got a few hits.”
Having spent most of his time hitting behind standout Eric Geddes, Hill thrived by seeing better pitches from the opposition as they pitched around Geddes to take their chances with Hill.
With Geddes graduating, Hill is no longer the protection but instead will rely on having protection behind him in the batting order to continue producing the way he has over the past several seasons.
“Usually that’s what they would do, they would go after Aidan and now they are probably going to avoid Aidan and that’s where the other guys come in,” noted Paes. “If they want to avoid Aidan, then, hopefully, we have the guys behind him and in front of him that can step up and lead a team.”
Capping off a strong opening day victory were impressive performances from Warnick and Cardinal, who combined to hurl seven innings while allowing two runs on six hits and striking out six batters.
Paes acknowledged that while the G-Men will miss Geddes’ presence in the rotation, the current rotation of Warnick, Cardinal, Hill, junior second baseman Brandyn Bogucki and junior center fielder Jack Neikirk will be pitching with a chip on their shoulder this season.
“Aidan had a lot of success last year too and I said this year that the biggest question is what guys will log innings behind Aiden,” he added. “Garrett did a good job, Jared did a good job and we have Brandyn and Jack. Some other guys who did not pitch today and will all be part of that.”
After home games against Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Grey Tier foe Ravenna Southeast on Tuesday and Portage County rival Mogadore on Thursday, the G-Men will host Cardinal on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. in Garrettsville.
