by Stow, Ohio – On a chilly and windy Saturday afternoon at Stow High School, Copley and Stow opened their respective baseball seasons. In the end, the visiting Copley Indians held off the host Stow Bulldogs, 4-3, in nine innings.
It was scoreless until the top of the third when senior left fielder Adam Nedolast drove in an RBI single to put the Indians on top 1-0. After a steal and a sacrifice bnt which moved him to third, he would score on a wild pitch after a walk, to increase the lead to 2-0.
Stow would answer with two runs in their half of the third. After two singles to open up the inning, sophomore third baseman/pitcher Pat Cicantelli drove home a run on a groundout to short. Senior first baseman Colin Harris would drive a double right field to tie the score.
Copley would jump in front in the fourth when sophomore third baseman/pitcher Jack Mathey reached on an error at short. He would be advanced to second on a sacrifice, and scored on a two-out single by first baseman Gavin Smargiasso. Stow would later tie it up in the bottom of the fifth when Cicantelli drove a double to left field. He would score on a wild throw from third base on a bunt attempt.
Both teams got runners on base in the seventh inning, and Stow got two runners on in their half of the seventh, but got a timely liner which turned into a double play, sending the game into extras.
Copley second baseman Andrew Wachs opened up the ninth with a single to left, and would advance to second on a bunt, and later third on a wild pitch. He would score on Nedolast’s second RBI of the game, a single to right field, to give the Indians the lead. Jack Mathey came on in the eighth inning and closed the door in the ninth to give Copley the win.
“We were resilient. We made some mistakes, but we kept fighting back and kept working through our mistakes. They’re a resilient group of kids and we ended up on top today.” said Copley head coach Ray Fantozzi.
“I was just waiting for that fastball. When I saw it, I hit it, got a single, got the run. It felt good.” said Nedolast, who went 4-5 on the day with two singles, a double, a steal, a run scored, and two batted in.
Junior Gavin Smargiasso went 2-2 on the day, with a pair of singles, a sac bunt, and two runs batted in.
“We were excited to get out here on day one. Had a great crowd turnout today and I thought we had some good things and some bad things today. Definitely a lot to learn from and I think we’ll continue to grow as a group.” said Stow head coach Aaron DeBord.
For Stow, junior outfielder Adam Folk went 4-5 on the day with four singles, a steal and a run scored. Senior pitcher and Adrian College commit Joe Toth, who came on for sophomore starter Mark Wilbur in the fourth inning, shut down Copley over 4 1/3 innings, allowing only one hit and getting a handful of ground ball outs.
“There were some misplayed fly balls that we didn’t capitalize on.” said Folk. “I think that hurt us in the long run, plus we didn’t have good situational hitting towards the end. Our goal every year is to go to the state playoffs, and that hasn’t changed, even after today.” he added.
Copley plays host to Wadsworth on Monday and Benedictine on Tuesday afternoon, and Stow travels to Knoxville, Tennessee for games from Tuesday through Saturday.
