Bay left fielder Bryan Johnson slides safely into third base as Avon’s Ryan O’Rourke takes the throw in last Friday’s Division II sectional title game. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

Rockets roll to district
By Jim Horvath
Sports
Published May 21, 2008

Last Friday, the Bay Rockets faced West Shore Conference foe Avon for the second time in as many days.

Both games meant plenty.

Last Wednesday, the Rockets claimed a five inning 7-3 win to move to 10-3 in the WSC and set up this past Monday’s big game at home with Midview for the league title. On Friday at Avon, a big six-run second inning made the difference as Bay came away with a convincing 13-2 victory to claim a Division II sectional championship.

The Rockets, now 17-6 overall, will play Highland tomorrow in a district semifinal game in Lorain. Bay coach Joe Cheney is hoping his team’s bats stay hot heading into the next round.

“When you play a big tournament game on the road, sometimes you have to ease into it a bit,” said Cheney, as his team found itself in a 2-2 deadlock after one inning of play in the Friday contest.

“We took the lead, but gave it right back,” said Cheney. “We did a nice job, though, of answering back right away with that second inning. We were expecting a tough battle from them. It was definitely a concern playing someone twice in a row, but it was also good to play someone you know.

“Offensively, we’re pretty balanced one through nine. We’ve got a combination of speed and good eyes at the plate, and today that allowed us to string some hits together early and build the early lead,” he said.

Bay pitcher Matt Francati picked up his fourth win of the season and blasted a solo home run to get Bay past Avon last Friday. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

Bay took a 2-0 lead in the first inning by taking advantage of some bobbles by the Eagle defense. An RBI flyout by Tyler Davis and an RBI single to right center by Brian Taricska allowed the Rockets to cash in.

In the bottom of the first, the Rockets made some miscues of their own to allow Avon to tie the game up at 2-2.

After that, however, it was all Bay.

Junior catcher Mike Lehmann started things off with a solid single to right off Eagle starter John Harrison. A pair of walks to junior Luke Sterle and freshman designated hitter Eric Blaha loaded the bases for junior Sam Ward.

Ward took a 0-1 pitch and sent it into left field to score Lehmann and Sterle. Another 0-1 single by sophomore Bryan Johnson sent home Blaha, and another single by senior slugger Matt Francati send home another run. Johnson eventually scored on a wild pitch, and Francati came home via an RBI flyout by Davis.

With the score 8-2, the rest of the game turned out to be a breeze for the Rockets as Francati went the distance to pick up the win. He allowed just the two runs on three hits to raise his record to 4-2 on the season and lower his earned run average to 3.02. He helped his own cause with a leadoff home run in the top of the fourth inning, his fourth of the season, that cleared the fence just left of the 375 sign.

“I think that was probably his best outing of the season,” Cheney said of Francati’s mound performance. “I think early on he felt like he had to carry the team on his back, so maybe he was overthrowing the ball a bit. After that second inning he settled down and was solid the rest of the way.”

Bay added four runs in the top of the seventh inning as Avon made two more errors. Those errors allowed the first two runs to score, then a two-run double to left center from Taricska all but put the game away.

In the first Avon game, Bay scored a run in the first inning and three more in the second to take a 4-0 lead. Another three-run outburst in the fourth inning made it 7-0 before Avon got on the board with a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame.

Ward, Francati, Davis and Taricska each had four hits for the Rockets, while one of Davis’ was a home run. Davis went the distance to raise his record to 5-1 and lower his earned run average to 2.08 in 30 innings of work.

Going into the Highland game, Bay has won eight of its last 10 games and still has three players hitting over .400, Taricska leads the way with a .487 average, followed by Francati at .434 and Ward at .410.