Boardman, OH edged Ellwood City, 2-1, in a classic game in the 75th Ellwood City Little League Tournament on Sunday night at Freidhoff Field.
Kyler Diaz smacked a single to centerfield scoring Rocco Skovira in the bottom of the ninth inning to give Boardman the win. The victory by Boardman in the winner’s bracket final reserves their place in the championship game on Wednesday night. Ellwood City and Neshannock will meet Monday night at 7:00 PM to decide Boardman’s opponent in the title game.
A towering home run by Diaz in the bottom of the first inning gave Boardman an early 1-0 lead. Ellwood City threatened in the bottom of the second inning. With two outs, Jaxon Wyant walked and Rocco Gagric singled to centerfield. After a passed ball, both runners moved into scoring position but a ground out ended the threat. Boardman mounted their own threat in the bottom of the inning when Louie Viglio led off with a double and moved to third base on a sacrifice by Tyler Schmied. But a strikeout and ground out ended he threat. Ellwood City knotted the score in the third inning at 1-1 on a line drive home run over the centerfield fence by Jace Vandervort. The solo home runs by Diaz and Vandevort were the only runs allowed by starting pitchers Vinny Skovira of Boardman and Gage Pflugh of Ellwood City.
In the fourth inning, relief pitchers Diaz for Boardman and Ryan Bales for Ellwood City took the mound. Both pitchers threw three scoreless innings apiece with each pitcher allowing just one hit. Diaz fanned four batters and Bales whiffed five batters in their stints on the mound.
With the score tied at 1-1, the game entered extra innings. Dalton Tiger took the mound and fanned all the batters in the top of the seventh inning. Vandevort took the hill for Ellwood City and Boardman loaded the bases with one out on an error, a hit batsman and a walk. Tyler Schmeid followed with a potential game-winning bunt but Vandevort’s sliding throw from his knees to catcher Bales nailed the runner at home for the second out. Vandevort fanned the next batter to end the inning.
After a scoreless eighth inning, Ellwood City went in order in the top of the ninth inning. In the bottom half of the inning, Boardman mounted their game-winning rally. Rocco Skovira led off with a walk and Rocco Rosati bunted for a single. On a 2-2 pitch, Diaz delivered with a sharp single to centerfield scoring Skovira to give Boardman the 2-1 victory.
Tiger was the winning pitcher for Boardman with three innings of hitless relief. He fanned seven batters with out a walk. Diaz threw three innings of relief and allowed one hit and struck out four batters. Skovira allowed two hits and one run in three innings of work. Pflugh allowed three hits and one run with three strikeouts. Bales pitched three scoreless innings of relief . He allowed one hit and fanned five batters. Vandevort allowed two hits and one run with three strikeouts.
Vandevort led Ellwood City with a home run and one RBI. Asher Fabich, Pflugh and Gagric added singles.
Ellwood City had entered the contest fresh off an explosive 15-0 victory over Laurel Friday evening. Vandevort belted a homer, double and single and Bruce Beightley homered, singled and drove in three runs.
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