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Howland rallies past Lakeview in seventh

CORTLAND — Howland’s three-run seventh inning lifted the Tigers past the Lakeview Bulldogs, 7-4, Friday as starting pitcher Hayden Parker went the distance for Howland, striking out four and not allowing a walk.

“We were confident the whole time. Right from the bat, we were hitting the ball — it was just right at them,” Howland coach Justin Drapp said. “The only thing you do is keep plugging away and that’s what we did. We were behind Parker the whole time, we knew he’d come through and do a great job for us.”

With the game tied at 4-4 in the top of the seventh, a Keith Rounds single gave the Tigers one on with one out. Zachary Campbell’s grounder to third was cleanly fielded by Danny Brammer, but D.J. Morvay was unable to reel in the throw, allowing Rounds to score from second base, following a stolen base on the previous pitch. A hit batter and a walk loaded the bases for Frank Rappach, whose sacrifice fly to center extended the Tiger lead to 6-4. Spencer Shilling followed with an RBI down the left field line to score Dylan Keller, just before Dylan Beasom was tagged out at third to end the inning.

Parker then finished off the Bulldogs with a quick 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the seventh, to improve his record to 2-0 and give Howland its fourth straight win.

“Oh, he (Parker) threw a gem,” Drapp said. “He definitely brought his lunchbox to work today. He was just out there being a bulldog, pounding, hammering the zone. He had a pretty good defense behind him and he knows that. So, he doesn’t try to do too much, he just throws strikes.”

Parker quickly got through the first two innings without allowing a baserunner, until Anthony Sylvester’s leadoff single to start the bottom of the third inning. The inning soon turned into a rough one for Parker, as he balked before throwing another pitch, advancing Sylvester to second.

A Justin Grove single was followed by starting pitcher Cody Lundy’s strikeout. However, Howland catcher Campbell attempted to pick off Grove at first, and the errant throw allowed Sylvester to come home and give the Bulldogs the first lead of the day.

Another single was soon followed by Jim DePizzo’s two-run double to the right center field gap, scoring Grove and A.J. McClellan to extend the lead to 3-0. However, Parker caught a break when Morvay’s single appeared to score DePizzo.

The umpire ruled that DePizzo did not tag third base, so instead of a 4-0 Lakeview lead with one out, it remained 3-0 with two outs, and Howland soon managed to get out of the inning.

“I watched him (DePizzo) step on the front corner of the base. He (the umpire) said he missed a base — he didn’t, I was right there,” Lakeview coach Mike Johnson said. “That changes the whole momentum of the game. Now we have two outs (and) it’s a completely different situation, heart of our order coming up, then we get one out and it takes our momentum away from us.”

Howland (11-5) quickly responded with three runs off of Lundy in the top of the fourth inning, including a Rounds bases-loaded single to score Nate Leventis and Schilling, knotting the score at 3 apiece.

Lakeview (10-6) regained the lead with a DePizzo RBI single to the right field gap, scoring Jimmy Guinn. However, Lakeview’s fortunes quickly changed when a pair of wild pitches brought Rappach home to tie the game at 4-4 in the top of the sixth, prior to the Bulldogs’ meltdown in the seventh.

The Tigers, now on the aforementioned four-game winning streak, are looking forward to tournament play in the coming weeks. For Drapp, the former Geneva head coach and Warren G. Harding assistant coach, his first year is off to a solid start and, according to him, family has been the key factor in the Tigers’ success.

“The biggest improvement I think is facing adversity and overcoming it. Sticking together like a family, that’s one of the things we preached from Day 1, is we’re a family, and we gotta act like it,” Drapp said.

“When things go wrong, we can’t tuck our heads or let the snowball get bigger. If we make errors, we can’t make four or five. Once one error stops, we gotta stop it. Coming together instead of blaming each other and pointing the finger, offering support. I just want to see the same competitiveness that I’ve seen all year (going forward).”

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