The Streetsboro Rockets’ baseball team appears to be trending in the right direction after losing their first four games of the season. The Rockets captured their second victory in three games as senior right-hander Graham Jonas fueled them to a 2-0 victory by hurling a complete game shutout against Portage County rival Southeast last Saturday afternoon at American Legion Field.
“Things are starting to click,” said Coach Chris Scisciani. “We have a little bit of an injury bug too, so we are starting to get healthy. We start three freshmen and on Saturday we started four. We are young, but we do have some senior leadership. It was a great team win.”
It marked the first time that the Rockets (2-5, 1-2) had faced Southeast since the 2022 campaign, and the 22-year coach said that his team enjoyed reigniting that Portage County rivalry.
“It is cool. I love it,” he added. “It is fun being able to do that. I hate having to travel so far and it is nice when the other coaches are willing to play us because sometimes, we are the bigger school.”
On Saturday, the Rockets relied on the freshman Jonas to pace them in a pitcher’s duel.
As each team struggled to manufacture timely base hits, Jonas stayed sharp and shut down the Pirates’ offense.
The Rocket struck first in the third inning, as senior third baseman Jayden Coffee delivered a clutch two-out, 2-run single into right field, pushing Streetsboro ahead 2-0.
“I was happy for him because he is deserving of it,” said Scisciani. “He works hard, and he leads our team, he is one of our leaders in quality at-bats and he hits the ball hard and he has been unlucky because sometimes he has been smoking them at people. He waited back and took it to right field with an easy single over second base.”
Jonas scattered three hits over four innings of work before Southeast threatened in the top of the fifth inning with consecutive one-out hits, putting runners at first and second for sophomore right-hander Alaunte Massrock.
Massrock hit an infield single in the hole to sophomore shortstop Jadyn Dufala, but junior first baseman Jake Szczecinski nailed sophomore Derek McIntyre trying to take home on the throw to first base for the second out of the inning.
Jonas retired the next Southeast batter, preserving the Rockets’ 2-0 lead.
According to Scisciani, seeing his defense make a heads-up play to keep the Pirates scoreless gave Jonas more motivation to finish off his varsity debut in style, setting down the next six Southeast batters in order, including striking out the side in the seventh inning.
Jonas hurled seven innings of shutout ball, surrendered only five hits, issued two walks, and struck out six batters.
“He throws hard for a freshman, in the mid to upper 70s and he has a good breaking ball and a change-up and both Southeast kids that threw were their number one and number two, so it was a pitching duel,” Scisciani noted. “We fell on the right side and made a few more plays.”
As the Rockets are gaining momentum, Scisciani said that it is a promising sign in an unusual season, as Streetsboro fields one of its largest varsity rosters in recent memory because its junior varsity program was eliminated this spring due to budget cuts.
Scisciani said that the team is carrying more freshmen than ever and trying to sprinkle them into varsity action whenever the situation is appropriate, as their opportunities for playing time are more limited with no junior varsity program this year.
“We keep telling those guys that are not as playing as much that they would be playing every day if we had a junior varsity team and not to get down and keep practicing and working hard and they are and they are all starting to buy in,” Scisciani said.
Although the varsity team is overflowing with players, Scisciani expressed optimism that the players who are receiving limited varsity action can make the most of it and get comfortable, which will bode well for the team for the next several years.Currently the Rockets have only three seniors on the team and are starting three freshmen in Jonas, catcher Joey DeToro and second baseman Mason Sanford.
Scisciani also highlighted the Rockets’ pitching depth as a strength, as they currently have four quality starting pitchers in the rotation consisting of senior Scotty Wilson, junior Brady Long, Jonas, and Szczecinski.
After an away-and-home series against Metro Athletic Conference foe Ravenna on Monday and Tuesday and a home contest against Portage County foe Kent Roosevelt on Wednesday, Streetsboro will face Lakeview on Friday evening in Cortland at 5 p.m.
