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Hartville Eagles beat Norwood, Mansfield

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It was rivalry week for the Hartville Eagles baseball team.

During their recent stretch, they had Summit Conference match-ups with rivals Norwood, Mansfield, Gainesville and Seymour.

Against the Pirates, Isaac Boyer put Hartville on the board with an RBI single in the top of the second inning.

Norwood’s Drake tied the game in the top of the fifth inning when he grounded out to score one run.

Tied at 1-1, Brody McNiel hit a solo home run in the bottom half of the sixth inning, which turned out to be the winning run in a 2-1 victory. He finished with two hits in the game.

Rory Kirkpatrick had a three hit game; Boyer had one RBI; and both Dylan Stigall and McNiel scored one run.

On the mound, Justin Parker tossed five innings and allowed one earned run on five hits with six strikeouts. McNiel tossed two innings of shutout ball and struck out six.

The Pirates’ Dylan Calhoun had two hits; Drake had one RBI; and Davault scored one run.

Davault pitched himself out of a couple of jams and finished the game by tossing five innings. He allowed one earned run on eight hits with eight strikeouts. Jacob Sinning went one inning and gave up one earned run on two hits with one strikeout.

In their second in-county match-up of the week, the Eagles held off a late Mansfield charge for an 8-6 victory.

Defensive errors hurt them early as the Lions scored four runs through the first two innings.

A pair of balks in the top of the third inning set up Kirkpatrick for a two-RBI single. Stigall’s RBI single made it 4-3.

McNiel’s RBI double midway through the game tied things at 4-4. Eric Wilson added an RBI single and later scored with McNiel on Kirkpatrick’s two-RBI single to give the Eagles an 8-4 edge.

The Lions would score two runs in the top of the seventh inning, but their rally fell short.

Kirkpatrick finished with two hits and four RBIs while McNiel had one RBI and three runs scored. Wilson had one RBI and two runs scored; Sitgall had one RBI; while both Boyer and Ethan McDaris each scored one run.

Jacob Cryer lasted six innings for the Eagles on the mound, allowing five earned runs on seven hits with four strikeouts. McDaris tossed one inning of shutout ball.

Kaden Coble led the Lions with two RBIs; Carter Brooke had one RBI and one run scored; while Brayden Barnett, Ryin Long, Kellar Davis and Trevor Williams each scored one run.

On the mound, Barnett tossed two innings and allowed three earned runs on four hits with two strikeouts. Dylan Robertson went four innings and allowed three earned runs on four hits with five strikeouts.

On Sep. 2, the Eagles dropped a tough 3-1 loss to Seymour.

Both teams scored once in the first inning. The game remained tied through five innings before the Tigers had two runs in the top of the sixth. Hartville’s offense had just two hits in the loss.

Grant Culver and Parker each had a base hit; Kirkpatrick had one RBI; and Wilson scored the lone run.

McNiel went six and a third innings and allowed two earned runs on one hit with 10 strikeouts. Parker tossed two-thirds of an inning of shutout ball. He gave up just one hit. Hartville led 4-2 through three innings in their match-up with Gainesville on Sep. 9.

After the Bulldogs took a 5-4 lead in the fifth inning, the Eagles rallied for three runs to take a 7-5 lead.

Unfortunately, Gainesville would go on to score two runs in each of their final two at-bats to win the game, 9-7. The Bulldogs won in spite of their defense making four errors.

Kirkpatrick had two hits and three runs scored; Culver had two RBIs and one run scored; McDaris had three RBIs; while McNiel, Parker and Hunter Lowery each scored a run.

Cryer tossed one inning of shutout ball and allowed one hit. Lowery went three and a third innings, allowing four earned runs on one hit. Stigall tossed two and two-thirds innings and allowed five earned runs on four hits with three strikeouts.