Staff photo / Preston Byers. Austintown Fitch’s Morgan Roby (42) and Kylie Folkwein (13) celebrate at home plate after Roby scored during the Falcons’ playoff win vs. Strongsville on Friday at Youngstown State.

YOUNGSTOWN — Austintown Fitch’s small-ball mindset and aggression overwhelmed Strongsville en route to a six-inning 10-0 victory Friday to capture its fourth consecutive district championship..

The top-seeded Falcons routinely utilized bunts in the Division I, Northeast 4 district final on Youngstown State’s campus and made the most of their time on the basepaths as the Mustangs’ errors mounted.

“I really liked our aggressiveness, both at the plate and on the bases,” Fitch head coach Steve Ward said. “And our defense was lights out today. They really came to play. They really got our pitcher’s back. We’re really excited for this win.”

Kourtney Fedorek walked the first batter of the game but rebounded with three consecutive strikeouts. She retired the side in order in the second inning before surrendering her first hit in the top of the third inning.

Fedorek, a freshman, allowed just three hits and one walk in a five-strikeout complete game.

“Our team does such an amazing job of building up Kourtney and all of our pitchers, quite honestly,” Ward said. “They’re gonna get her back and they tell her, ‘Hey, if you mess up, no big deal. We got you. We got you hitting, we got you fielding.’ And you can see how the defense played lights out today.”

Second baseman Kylie Folkwein, in particular, made several plays on the run to prevent hits and the Mustangs from building momentum.

Offensively, Folkwein and the Falcons made it as tough as possible on the Strongsville defense.

After a hitless first inning, Folkwein led off by reaching third base on an error in center field. Seneca Coates immediately brought Folkwein home with an RBI single.

Two batters later, Rachel Spalding laid down a bunt, which set off an unfortunate chain of events for Strongsville. After Spalding managed to get to first base, an errant throw allowed Coates and Spalding to score as well, giving the Falcons a 3-0 lead.

Following a Kaliana Ray double off of the left-field fence, Alyssa Rodgers singled on another bunt, which again led to disaster for the Mustangs, whose throw trying to catch Ray stealing sailed into the outfield and gave Ray enough time to race home for Fitch’s fourth and final run of the inning.

Strongsville had its best chance to get on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth inning, when Addison Heidenhoffer singled before Kaylen Clough doubled. On the double, Heidenhoffer was waved home, which proved to be a mistake.

Thanks to a flawless relay from the outfield, Fitch catcher Abby Toth tagged Heidenhoffer out as she slid into home plate for the half-inning’s final out.

The defensive momentum followed onto offense for the Falcons.

Sam Severn led off with a single to left field, and two batters later, Ray brought Severn and Veda Burt home with a two-run triple. The throw from the outfield missed the mark, though, allowing Ray to score and give the Falcons a seven-run lead.

Rodgers, who singled, scored shortly thereafter as a result of two stolen bases and running home on a groundout to the pitcher. Morgan Roby then hit a fly ball to right field and scored following a pair of errors by the Strongsville defense.

Needing one run to mercy rule the Mustangs, Fitch was retired in order in the fifth inning but managed to get the job done in the sixth, when Abby Toth’s sacrifice bunt scored Ray for the 10th and final run.

Like many other teams in Northeast Ohio, Fitch has been at the whim of Mother Nature, which forced Friday’s district title game, like many spring sports events this week, to be postponed multiple times due to inclement weather.

“It was tough. It was tough,” Ward said of the weather effects on the Falcons’ district final. “They want to play more than practice, of course, and I think every kid does, but they handle it very professionally. They get into the gym. So those two days, we did hitting sessions, they went in the gym, they got done what they needed to get done, and they handled it like mature athletes.”

Weather permitting, Fitch is scheduled to continue its postseason run on Wednesday. The Falcons will travel to Berea, where they will play in the first game of the regional semifinal doubleheader at the Roehm Athletic Complex.

Fitch will face Northeast 1 district champion Massillon Jackson at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.