Staff photo/Neil Madhavan. Howland pitcher Luca Fronzoglio threw a ball toward home plate on Friday against Colombiana.
HOWLAND – In recent days, Howland has been working on its approach to painting.
“We were working on standing back, being cool with our front foot and trying to work through the middle,” Tigers coach Zack Bailer said.
As evidenced by Howland’s 10-3 win over Columbiana on Friday, it should be a success because the Tigers had nine hits totaling a double count, with six batters recording at least one RBI, while three batters hitting two in the win.
“I think we ran into some guys who were thrown at a speed that was manageable by our guys,” he said. Bailer said. “Honestly, we thought we should have hit those guys better. But it’s been known in high school, that slow pace actually gives the guys a lot of trouble. I just think we’ve had good tackles-hitters for the pitcher, and we’re working on some mechanics to help.” “.
After Colombiana scored an early run in the first inning when Biden Pepoli robbed him home during a breakout attempt, it was all Howland.
The Tigers answered right away, with Brendan Ray putting up the first two runs through Howland with a bases-clearing double. After that, the Tigers scored again in the second on a loaded walk the bases.
But the pivotal inning ended in the third, when Howland scored five runs on four hits while bowling the order.
“We rely very heavily on our starting pitchers,” he said. Clippers coach Bryce Franken said. “We thought (starter Sam Inboden) threw well. He threw out and that’s all we could ask of the little kid. … But we put ourselves in a hole. … Our identity as a team is the ability to do things on the bases, which unfortunately when You’re in a hole and you start taking hits and we load the bases and do these kinds of things, we can’t throw out when you’re down by five.
“The big swing of the game was that third inning. We kicked it a little bit and two balls fell in that shouldn’t have happened. But (Inboden) is a little kid, we’re proud of the way he got his first career start.”
The Tigers had four consecutive hits and four batters, Gavin Caldwell, Jack Kinney, Luca Fronzoglio and Nick Ligure, caught an RBI during the inning.
“It was just momentum,” Bailer said. “We scored in every inning except one. Sometimes you get a little momentum and you get the right people going and people move on and make rules and things like that. Baseball is contagious. (After that), we just mask our way through the rest of the game.”
Despite facing a seven-run deficit, the Clippers didn’t fold, and managed to pull two runs back in the fourth when Colin Clement hit a home run and hit Max Conway with a run.
“I was glad we fought more today than we had in the last two days,” he said. Franken said. “We started to scratch some runs there. … The important thing is we’ve come out flat (in recent games). When you beat a good team, they make you push. So going forward we just have to be strong.”
But from there, the duo of Fronzoglio and Robert Gomino on the hill proved to be too much for the Colombiana.
Fronzoglio threw five innings, while Gumino came from short in the last two, as the twosome combined on five strikeouts.
“Luka has done great – we come into the game and we want him to go 4-5 runs,” he said. Bailer said. “We didn’t see a ball go out until the fourth inning, so it was a great performance. Then we brought in our shortstop, who doesn’t do a lot of talking for us, but he came in a lot more quickly and that helped a lot.”