By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

ANSONIA — The Ansonia baseball team wasted no time getting on the board against Fairlawn in the Southwest Division IV sectional tournament game on May 15. The Tigers scored eight runs in the opening frame at home en route to their 12-0 victory.

Head coach Dustin Hecht said when his team starts slow, they let the opposing team gain confidence and steal games away from them. After starting slow against Fairlawn earlier in the season, the team came out swinging.

“We struggled with them early when we played them during the season and then we picked it up late. But we knew coming into today, we had to start fast. If we could get things rolling fast, we knew good things were going to happen for us,” Hecht said.

Sophomore Asher Shives started the inning with a walk and got himself to third base after a steal and an error. Junior Nick Burns drove him in for the game’s first run.

Junior Keegen Weiss then drove in a run. With two runners on, senior Gabe Zumbrun drove both runners to go up 4-0. Junior Landyn Bowman then added on with a RBI.

After forcing a change at pitcher, senior Nathan Armock drove in a run. Shives, at the plate again, drove in two more runs to go up 8-0 after the first.

Hecht said during their slow starts, they struggle when they’re watching pitches. The team was swinging at anything they remotely liked during the first inning.

“When attack early, good things happen. When we get on base, we get things moving and good things are going to happen for us,” Hecht said.

The Tigers scored four more runs in the third inning. Junior Treavor Hemmerich helped drive in two more runs to go up 10-0. Hemmerich then scored on an error. Bowman then had a RBI double to put Ansonia up 12-0.

Three different pitchers helped Ansonia limit Fairlawn to two hits in the shutout. Bowman started the game and had four strikeouts in three innings. Burns pitched an inning and then Weiss closed out the game.

Hecht said this was Weiss comeback to pitching as this was his first appearance on the mound this season. He also said it was good to see Weiss back out there. Weiss had two strikeouts in his lone inning pitched.

With it being tournament time now, Hecht did be cautious with the pitch count. He said he pulled Bowman out because of his pitch count and wanted to make sure he had as many available arms as possible.

“Pitch count came into play with the first one. We could have let him go, but with what’s coming up, tournament, we wanted to make sure we keep guys healthy. Arms are ready to go, all around no matter what,” Hecht said.

Ansonia will resume their tournament run on May 17 with a road game at Russia. The game is set for a 5 p.m. first pitch.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]