The Garfield G-Men have experienced some turbulence in the final innings of several games this season, with each of their last two losses occurring in the final inning. Despite another rocky seventh inning, the G-Men defeated Portage County rival Rootstown 6-3 last Saturday afternoon at Garrettsville.
“I thought that Rootstown has been a very good team for a very long time and we knew we had to play really well to beat them and scrap our way through,” said Coach Michael Paes. “They always have good pitching and they always hit the ball. I just didn’t like the way that we lost the last couple of times, but I made a point to tell them that we just need to play our game and scrap out a win.”
After racing out to a 4-0 lead, the G-Men (5-2, 2-1) ran into some tough times by once again losing to Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Grey Tier foe LaBrae on April 7 and then suffered a walk-off loss against Mineral Ridge on Wednesday.
Although the game against the Vikings was called after six innings because of weather conditions, Garfield squandered a late lead by surrendering three runs in the bottom of the sixth and then the Rams rallied for two runs in the seventh on Wednesday.
On Saturday, it appeared that the G-Men were headed for trouble once again in the top of the seventh when the Rovers loaded the bases against freshman right-hander Jared Cardinal.
“I don’t know what it is or what it has been or why it has been like that but we have had some crazy endings,” noted the 11-year coach. “It looked like it was going to happen again. I was just saying in my head, ‘not again’.”
Cardinal struck out sophomore Kiel Reuting but junior catcher Brandon Pesicek dropped the third strike. According to the rules, because the bases were loaded with less than two outs, Reuting was automatically out but sophomore left fielder Alex Ely still tried to steal home and was tagged out by Pesicek
“He got that strikeout, and he did it himself without being talked to,” noted Paes. “That is a lot for a freshman kid pitching in a crucial time.”
The G-Men snapped their two-game losing streak and secured a rare victory against their former conference rivals, a team that has frequently excelled against Garfield dating back to when they were both members of the Portage Trail Conference.
The Portage County foes traded runs in the first four innings with the Rovers taking a 3-2 advantage after the fifth when the G-Men handed Rootstown extra outs because of defensive miscues.
The Rovers took advantage, scoring two runs on a RBI-groundout to Cardinal at second base by senior right fielder Brady Kreitzberg and a sacrifice fly to right field by junior center fielder Brady Brown.
“It was tough and we had to overcome that one in that one inning and a lot of it was out of our control and so for them to bear down and somehow get the win, it was awesome,” said Paes.
Garfield responded in the bottom half of the fifth frame as senior right-hander Aidan Hill slugged a two-run double to right field to jumpstart a four-run fifth inning.
“He is a heck of a player at the plate and on the mound. He has been as a good as I have seen for a while and he is filling in Eric’s footsteps from last year,” Paes said. “Aidan did great things last year, but I think he has taken a couple of steps up to be clutch.”
The Rovers then committed some costly errors and junior right fielder Garrett Warnick delivered another run as Rovers’ senior shortstop George Luli misplayed a groundball and then Hill scored on a throwing error by senior catcher Blake Postlethwait when he overthrew third baseman Sean Boveington in an attempt to pick off the California University of Pennsylvania commit.
The Rovers did not go quietly and pushed Cardinal to the brink in the seventh inning by loading the bases with one out, but the freshman righty stood tall and was backed up by some keen defensive awareness by Pecsicek to close out the game.
Although the G-Men already have one league loss on their record, Paes said that his team understands there is still a long season to go.
“We’re just going to take it game by game and try to win it and I think this league is pretty darn good so hopefully someone beats LaBrae too and everybody is on the same proving ground,” he said.
After a road contest against MVAC Grey Tier foe Champion on Tuesday and a home game against Struthers on Thursday, the G-Men will host Akron Springfield on Saturday morning at 11 a.m.
