The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Fourth carries ’Toppers to win
The fourth inning saw the Chardon bats come alive, and a solid day from the mound saw the Hilltoppers walk away with an impressive 8-1 win in a nonconference matchup with Fairview at Progressive Field on April 16.
The Hilltoppers now move to 7-6 on the season, while Fairview falls to 3-7.
The hitting was on display early for the Hilltoppers. Colin Toth got the ball rolling with a leadoff double in the bottom of the first and was brought home thanks to an RBI single by Zack Fronk. An RBI by Nolan Kirsh in the third made it 2-0 Chardon. Fairview finally got on the board with an RBI in the top of the fourth inning.
But then the bottom of the fourth came around.
It got started with a pair of singles, and then Toth stepped up to the plate again. This time he launched a ball to the right field warning track to bring the other two runners home. When he got around second base, his coaches were still waving him on. He rounded third and beat the throw to home plate for the inside-the-park home run. Toth credits his coaches for keeping him going on the home run.
“I was just hustling as fast as I could around the bases,” Toth said. “I give a lot of credit to the coaches. They had the faith in me to get around the bases and finish the job.”
Three more players added RBI to the board before the game was done.
While the bats were big for Chardon, the pitching was just as good. The quartet of Kyle Maronde, Elliott Tyminski, Brandon Schreffler
CHARDON 8, FAIRVIEW 1
and Blake Barker combined to only allow six hits on the day. Coach Brian Long knows his guys on the mound are talented. They just needed a little something extra to help get the wins they should have.
“We have a lot of good arms in our program and it showed today,” Long said. “It’s a talented pitching staff. Right now they have below a 1.50 ERA on the season, and if today was an indication, this could be the start of something really good for us.”
On the other side of the diamond, Fairview struggled to find an answer to the Chardon puzzle. With so few players reaching base, it was going to be a
“We have a lot of good arms in our program and it showed today. It’s a talented pitching staff. Right now they have below a 1.50 ERA on the season, and if today was an indication, this could be the start of something really good for us.”
challenge for the Warriors to respond. Yet despite the struggles, Coach Zachary Broschk knows this game was close for a majority of the game, and this will be a learning experience for the Warriors.
“We’re a team that fights, and they don’t quit,” Broschk said. “They’re a tight-knit group, and they pick each other up when they’re down. Outside of a couple innings that got blown up, if we can start stringing some things together, we’re going to be doing a lot better going forward.”
Fairview will look to get back in the win column when it takes on conference foe Valley Forge on April 19. Chardon looks to use this win as momentum with another nonconference game against Perry on April 19.