Firelands wins fourth in a row THE SCORE

The Firelands baseball team traveled to Cincinnati over the weekend to play some DivisionI teams. The trip proved beneficial, not only because they defeated the No. 6-ranked team in the state in Lakota West, 9-4, but it also was an opportunity for the Falcons to bond.

Even though they lost the final game of the trip to LaSalle, their confidence has shown on the field since, winning their fourth-straight game, 12-2, in six innings over Clearview on April 27. Firelands clicked in all phases of the game, and capitalized on several Clippers errors along the way.

Starter Trevor Damron pitched four solid innings, giving up a pair of runs and five strikeouts to improve to 4-2 overall.

“I didn’t throw hard today, but my curveball and slider were pretty good,” Damron said. “I was able to throw them anywhere I wanted to and it made it a lot easier for my fastball.”

The senior’s confidence is a lot higher than it was a year ago, and his fastball tops at about 88 mph. But he’s become more of a developed pitcher, throwing batters different looks throughout.

Damron started in that win against Lakota West, going six innings and tossing 120 pitches, and acknowledged the experience in Cincinnati was vital.

“It turned our season around,” Damron said. “It was a lot of team bonding and that was a fun game. We came out hitting, pitching was fantastic and that experience is going to help us for the playoffs later on.”

The Falcons (11-7) produced 17 total hits and wasted no time getting ahead of Clearview in the bottom of the first when Alex Brill laced an RBI triple to score John Gall. Austin Urban later hit an RBI groundout for a 2-0 lead.

The following inning, FIRELANDS 12, CLEARVIEW 2

Nathan Kovach ripped a two-run double for a 4-0 lead, scoring Clayton Lucki and Aaron Myers.

“We jumped on first pitch strikes and that was key,” Kovach said. “I just like our overall energy right now and our confidence is really high.”

Clearview fought back in the top of the fourth, getting RBI knocks from Justin Lilly and Avery Cruz.

Up, 5-2, in the fifth, the Falcons blew it open, thanks to hits from Lucki and Myers, along with a run scored off a bad throw from Clearview.

But for the Clippers (910) on this day, they committed six errors and didn’t help starting pitcher Dakota Stout, who pitched five innings and gave up only four earned runs.

“We’ve got to do something with our defense,” Clearview coach Dennis Pihlblad said. “Our defense was horrible today and my job as a coach is to get them ready and correct that. We’ve got to give a better effort than that. I don’t think Dakota pitched that bad today — I think he did a good job. But we failed him in the field today and we have to correct that as a staff. We’ll find guys that can make plays.”

The Cincinnati trip was a thrill for Firelands coach Dan Ransom, and big picture-wise, can be the turning point to which he hopes catapults the Galcons into a deep tournament run.

“We’ve been playing well since this last weekend,” Ransom said. “We got a big win over Lakota, and even though we lost against LaSalle, we still played well. But that was a great trip for us. It’s been a confidence boost and today, we did well in all phases of the game. It’s all coming together and Trevor does his job all the time. He’s been better this year partly because we’re giving him more run support.”