EC Boys Tennis Wraps Up Season With Victory; EC Softball Suffers First Defeat

The Ellwood City boys tennis team wrapped up its regular season with a victory Thursday afternoon while the Wolverines softball team suffered its first defeat of its regular season earlier in the week.  Also, the Riverside Panthers baseball team cruised to a 22-0 victory over Summit Academy.

EC Tennis Defeats Ambridge

The Ellwood City boys tennis team used two impressive doubles victories to collect a match victory over Ambridge 3-2 on Thursday in Ewing Park. The victory rounded out the regular season that saw the Wolverines finish 4-4 on the campaign.

Ayden Frisk and Hunter Rock collected 6-0, 6-0 victories in doubles while Daniel Rogers and Ryan Odom (6-1, 6-1) also earned a victory for the Wolverines.  In singles, Grady Smith (6-2, 6-4) collected a victory over Chris Lewis of Ambridge. Mitchell Covert (6-7, 4-6) fell to Evan Waschak and Anthony DiBuono (3-6, 3-6) fell to Roarke Richard to round out the scoring.

Wolverines Softball Suffers First Defeat To Avonworth

In a battle for the section lead, Ellwood City traveled to Avonworth on Wednesday evening and lost to the host Antelopes 7-3.

The inability of the offense to hit with runners in scoring position and a shaky defense contributed mightily to the Lady Wolverine’s first loss of the season. Pitching for both teams was solid as Julia Nardone and her mound counterpart Liv Lantzy allowed just 2 earned runs apiece. Avonworth however, was the more efficient squad as they came away victorious.

After Avonworth struck first in the second inning, Ellwood City evened things up in the top of the third as Ellie Kalantzis led off with a walk and moved over to third on a one out single to right by Angie Nardone. Kyla Servick brought in Kalantzis with another single to right field.

Things remained tied up until the decisive fourth inning as the Antelopes plated three runs with one single and four Ellwood City errors. Avonworth extended their lead to 5-1 in the fifth as Heinauer hit a bomb over the center field wall.

Ellwood City battled back to make it 5-2 in the sixth as Mollie Street led off with a single and scored on an RBI groundout by Keira Rozanski. Avonworth answered right back in their half of the sixth with a run on two singles and a groundout.

Trailing 7-2 in their final at bat, Ellwood City loaded the bases with no outs but Ambridge minimized the damage as the Wolverines were only able to plate one run on another RBI groundout.

The Lady Wolverines were limited to just 5 hits on the evening. Julia Nardone doubled while Angie Nardone, Servick, Street, and Wearing all added singles. Nardone was the tough luck loser in the circle as she yielded 7 hits over six innings of work. She gave up 7 runs, 2 earned with 1 walk and 1 strikeout. The Lady Wolverines will look to get back to their winning ways as they travel to Keystone Oaks on Saturday to start the second half of section play. First pitch is set for noon.

Riverside Baseball Crushes Summit Academy, 22-0

Ethan Santillo threw an abbreviated gem on Thursday to lead Riverside past Summit Academy 22-0 in a three inning mercy rule affair.

Santillo pitched three perfect innings, allowing no hits, no walks, and striking out all nine batters he faced.

For the offense, Hunter Garvin and Drake Fox led the charge as each drove in four runs for the Panthers. Garvin went 2-for-3 at the plate with two doubles. Garvin also scored a team-high three runs.

Madden Boehm and John Bowser each swatted doubles for Riverside. Eight Panthers scored multiple times in the contest.

Riverside (9-1 Overall) nexts battles South Side in a home-and-home series beginning Monday at South Side. The Panthers will then host South Side on Tuesday.