Trailing, 5-0, through four innings, Saint Ignatius ties the score heading into the bottom of the sixth. However, the Arrows respond with a run in their half of the sixth and go on to secure the 1,000th victory in the history of Ashland's varsity baseball program.

Up next for the Wildcats is a trip to Amherst Steele on Wednesday for a 4:30 match up with the Comets.

Saint Ignatius' junior varsity, under the direction of new head coach Tim Clark, dominates the Arrows, 12-0.

Here is the varsity game story, along with the junior varsity recap.

By Eddie Dwyer, Copyright April 2013

Ashland, Ohio - As he was preparing to board the bus back to Saint Ignatius, Wildcats head baseball coach Brad Ganor looked at this corner and said: “That was a lot of drama for the first date of the year.”

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, the final emotional scene was produced by the Ashland Arrows, who, after watching Saint Ignatius erase a five-run deficit, turned back the ‘Cats, 6-5, in Monday’s 2013 season opener on the Arrows’ Bud Plank Field.

“They came ready to play in the first inning and obviously we weren’t,” said Coach Ganor of Ashland’s four-run bottom of the first. “We woke up, but it took us awhile to get going. We’re Saint Ignatius High School,
we should be ready to go on day one, pitch one. There is no excuse.”

After setting the Wildcats down in order, Ashland scored four times in its half of the first inning. Right fielder Jake Allton set the table with a lead off triple to right field and scored on a wild pitch. The other big blow was a one out RBI single to right by third baseman David Van Hove, and the Arrows created their third and fourth runs by taking advantage of three consecutive walks issued by Saint Ignatius.

With Ashland’s starting pitcher Corey Goetz making clutch pitches and keeping the Wildcats off-balance through four innings, the Arrows played some small ball en route to pushing their lead to 5-0 through four
innings. That bottom-of-the-fourth small ball featured a bunt for a base hit by shortstop Nick Zurcher and a sacrifice bunt by left fielder/relief pitcher Austin Bouquet.

“It comes down to throwing quality pitches, being able to command three pitches and not just pump fastballs at them,” Coach Ganor said. “It’s a regional-final team, they can hit. And when you can’t throw off-speed pitches for strikes, it limits what you can do. I thought Matt (senior right-hander Matt Lynch) did a nice job of settling down after that first inning and giving us a pitch count so we didn’t have to burn somebody early.”

Coach Ganor also pointed to the solid job 6-foot-4 junior right-hander Shane Skuhrovec did in keeping Saint Ignatius in the game with his effort out of the bullpen. Skuhrovec came on in relief in the third inning with runners on second and third and no outs, and didn’t allow any further damage in that inning.

Saint Ignatius, a Division I regional semifinalist in 2012, got its offense on track in the top of the fifth and cut the deficit to 5-3. Three of the Wildcats’ four senior captains – center fielder Conor Hennessey, shortstop
Tyler Finkler and second baseman Dan Rowbottom provided the RBI base hits.

After junior left fielder/relief pitcher Nick Fabian retired Ashland in order on a pop out and two strikeouts in the bottom of the fifth, Saint Ignatius tied the score in the top of the sixth on a one-out double by senior pinch hitter Kevin Hagen, two errors on the same play and a two-out RBI single by Hennessey.

However, with two outs and the bases empty in the bottom of the sixth, the Arrows came up with singles by Bouquet and Allton and scored the game’s final and decisive run on a wild pitch.

“Once they shook the cobwebs, our offense showed some life,” said Coach Ganor. “But ultimately you can’t spot a regional-final team five runs and expect to win the game. They’re (the Arrows) taking pictures on the
mound. This was a big deal for them.

“We talk to the kids a lot about the fact that we’re every team’s big game of the year,” Coach Ganor continued. “It’s unfortunate that it took us so long to get going. But, the best thing about baseball is that we don’t have to wait a week to play. We play on Wednesday. You have to persevere and playing in playoff games with warmer weather is the ultimate goal.”

JV RECAP

Saint Ignatius 12, Ashland 0: The JV ‘Cats jumped on the Arrows for three runs in both the
first and third innings and left no doubt with a three-run seventh.

Among the key hits in the first inning were a single by designated hitter Ryan Alexander and an RBI single by shortstop Kurt Mantes.

A double by Alexander, a run-scoring single by Mantes and a two-out, two-run single by right fielder Dylan Smolen put the Wildcats in command at 7-0 in the top of the third.

The Saint Ignatius offense just kept on rolling, as two-out RBI singles by third baseman Dylan Welch and first baseman Nick Jackson pushed the ‘Cats’ lead to 9-0 in the fourth and a two-run single by infielder Joe Conway in the seventh added frosting to the victory cake.

Tim Clark was also treated to some solid pitching in his debut as Saint Ignatius’ head JV coach. Starter MJ Nara pitched four perfect innings, striking out five, and Andrew Ciolli came on and struck out six over
the last three innings while yielding two hits and a walk.