EC Baseball, Softball Each Rebound With Victories

Both Ellwood City baseball and softball teams each rebounded from recent losses last week with victories over the weekend.

The Lady Wolverines lost a heartbreaking 2-1 extra innings affair to its rival Riverside on Thursday, but rebounded to hand section foe Hopewell its first section loss on Friday.

Ellwood City avenged an earlier section loss Friday as they beat Hopewell 6-0 at Stiefel Park.  With just four games left, the title is very much up for grabs as Hopewell leads with a record of 5-1 followed by Ellwood City and Central Valley tied for second with 4-2 section slates.  Mohawk is also alive with a 3-3 record.

The Lady Wolverines got things started in the second inning when hard hitting freshman Lexi Beck smoked a two out, two run double scoring the games first two runs.

Ellwood City added some much needed insurance in the fifth as they scored four times. Julia Nardone and Aliya Garroway led off with back to back singles to put runners on first and second. With one out, Sara Schwarz singled to center scoring Nardone. Another walk to Rozanski and a single to center by Kalantzis plated Schwarz. Gillin followed with a sacrifice fly to deep left field scoring Rozanski to make it 6-0.

Freshman phenom pitcher Amber Mcquistion slammed the door on the Vikings offense, allowing only two singles and the Lady Wolverines find themselves right in the middle of a tight section race. Mcquistion fanned 10 and walked just 2 over 7 innings of work. She consistently got ahead in the count as she threw 72 of her 105 pitches for strikes.

Nardone led the offensive attack with two hits including a double while Kalantzis also contributed two hits. Beck doubled and Garroway, Schwarz, and Rozanski added singles.

Ellwood City will travel to Mohawk on Monday to square off with the Warriors starting at 4:00 p.m.

ELLWOOD CITY BASEBALL BESTS WESTERN BEAVER

The Ellwood City boys baseball team earned a 15-10 victory over Western Beaver on Friday, shaking off a three game losing streak in the process.

The offensive affair on Friday saw a combined 25 runs on 20 hits between both teams.  The game featured a combined ten steals and eight errors between the teams.

After seeing an early three run lead quickly evaporate, Ellwood City piled on six runs in the second inning to stretch out to an early 9-4 lead. After Western Beaver widdled the lead down to a single run after a four run fifth inning, the visiting Wolverines put two runs on the board in the sixth and seventh innings to seal the victory.

Aaron Lake led the offense charge for Ellwood City as he collected a team high four hits(4-5, 3 RBIs, 2 SBs).  Jordan Keller smacked a homerun and double as part of his three hit performance (3-4, 3 runs, 2 RBIs, 1 SB).   Ellwood City collected 12 hits and 11 walks in the contest.

Freshman Nate Kennedy started on the rubber for the Wolverines, lasting 4.1 innings before giving way to fellow freshman Jake Biskup in the fifth inning who held Western Beaver at bay to earn the save.

Ellwood City (3-10 Overall) next begins a three game homestand when the host Central Valley on Tuesday with a 4:00 p.m. first pitch scheduled.