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Newton Falls convinces Crestview

COLUMBIANA – The fifth-seeded Crestview Rebels have relied on pitching and defense all season to carry them all season. In their Division III sectional tournament game with the eighth-seeded Newton Falls Tigers, the hot hitting Tigers exploded for a convincing 7-1 victory Thursday.

The Tigers improve to 18-8 on the season, and advance to face Rootstown on Tuesday. The Rebel fall to 13-9 on the year.

“They are a great team. They are a great hitting team,” Rebels coach Greg Eskra said. “We played them last Monday and we won 1-0. No errors on either side. I told them tonight that you have to play error free. You can’t give them four or five outs, especially a team like them that hits the ball.”

The Tigers came out on fire in the top of the first with four consecutive hits. The big blow being a three-run home run off the bat of second-baseman Emily Knight. Her towering shot over the left-field fence staked the Tigers to a 4-0 lead.

“I thought it was huge. It got us off to a nice start and gave us a bit of confidence to go through the game. The pitch was right down the middle and I knew I had runners on base so I knew I had to drive them in somehow. It hit the perfect spot on the bat so I knew it was gone,” Knight described her blast out of the park.

“We wanted to come out and get the momentum right from the very beginning and be aggressive defensively,” Baker remarked. “I thought we came out and jumped on them tonight. I was really happy with that. We not only had aggressive at-bats, but we had quality at-bats.”

“That first inning, they did exactly what we didn’t want them to do,” Eskra said. “To score four, and we had a chance to get out of the inning and we didn’t. They came out and punched us right in the face. A lot of the wind went out of our sails. I thought we would be able to battle back from 4-0, but it kind of progressed from there.”

That was all that Tigers starting pitcher Sophia Tvarock needed as she picked up the win, surrendering just five hits to the Rebels. She struck out 13 Rebels while only walking one.

“She did a good job tonight,” Baker said. “She stayed composed, she was in control and her defense backed her up. She did what she needed to do on the mound to take care of business.”

“She did a great job. She kept us off-balanced and she hit her spots,” Eskra recognized Tvarock.

The Tigers added to their advantage in the second inning when Chloe Butler, Lexie Drake, and Zoe McElrath collected consecutive singles. Butler scored on McElrath’s knock to left-center. McElrath led the Tigers with three hits in the game while also having two RBI’s.

After the Rebels has scratched out a run in the third on a double by Mckenna Schultz and an RBI single by Kaedyn Sutton, the Tigers quickly regained momentum in the top of the fourth. They tacked on two more runs courtesy of three straight singles by McElrath, Knight, and Joey Hood.

“We got some runner in position. We got some on, but again all year we can’t seem to string two or three hits, four hits in a row. Some games we have been able to do it, but we are not consistent enough,” Eskra said.

The Rebels were led by Kaedyn Sutton with three hits and the lone Rebel RBI in the game. McKenna Schulltz reached base all four of her plate appearances with two hits and two walks.

The Rebels resume regular season play with they travel to LaBrae Friday in MVAC Grey Division action.

NF (12-8): 4-1-0-2-0-0-0 — 7-12-0

C (13-9): 0-0-1-0-0-0-0 — 1- 5-1

WIN: Sophia Tvarock (13 strikeouts and 4 walks). LOSS: Kaedyn Sutton (6 strikeouts and 1 walk). TWO OR MORE HITS: NEWTON FALLS, Zoe McElrath 3, Chloe Butler 2, Lexie Drake 2, Emily Knight 2. CRESTVIEW, Kaedyn Sutton 3, McKenna Schultz 2. DOUBLES: NEWTON FALLS, Z. McElrath 1, CRESTVIEW, M. Schultz. HOME RUNS: NEWTON FALLS, E. Knight. TWO OR MORE RBIs: NEWTON FALLS, E. Knight 4, Z. McElrath2.

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