Staff photo / Preston Byers Howland’s Santino Donatelli, right, celebrates after hitting a three-run triple during Tuesday’s road win vs. Austintown Fitch.

AUSTINTOWN — On Monday, just about everything that could have gone wrong for the Howland baseball team did in its home loss to All-American Conference (AAC) rival Austintown Fitch. But on Tuesday, the fortunes flipped.

Twenty-four hours after the first leg of the league back-to-back, the Tigers shut out the Falcons 12-0 in five innings in Austintown, exploding for 12 hits after a four-hit outing Monday.

“These kids are very capable of hitting the ball like they did today, just the two-week layoff because of weather absolutely killed us,” Howland head coach Britt Taylor said. “We struggled against West Branch, and we struggled yesterday. We started to come out of it yesterday, but today is what we can do. I’m really excited about the rest of the season.”

It became clear early Tuesday that the rematch was not going to be a repeat.

Howland’s Deacon Mock drew a leadoff walk to start the game, and Richie Ansel doubled down the third-base line after him. Brayden Kovarik soon after brought both home with a single through the left side of the infield. Kovarik eventually scored after a Falcons error at second base to put the Tigers ahead 3-0.

Fitch, despite also drawing a leadoff walk, could not replicate Howland’s success, leaving Gavin Loomis on base at the end of the inning.

Howland picked up where it left off in the second, which only further flustered freshman pitcher Evan Kessler.

Elliot Gebhardt drew a walk to start the inning, and Mock, who saw two wild pitches from Kessler, reached base on balls for the second time not long after. Gebhardt, who advanced to third on one of the missed pitches, scored on an Ansel groundout, and Ansel scored on a Kovarik single through the infield.

After the Kovarik RBI and a hit-by-pitch before that, Paris replaced Kessler with Cooper Jobe, who loaded the bases by walking his first batter, Bode Biggin, before hitting Santino Minniti with a pitch, bringing home the Tigers’ sixth run.

“He’s been great all year for us. At Fitch, you don’t have freshmen start varsity very often, and he started for us from opening day,” Fitch head coach Joe Paris said of Kessler. “I think it’s different when he’s playing right field – he’s our cleanup hitter as well, as a freshman – but he seems to get a little more nervous when he’s on the hill. And I think his nerves got the better of him, and when things started not going his way, he had a hard time pulling it together.”

Opposing pitcher Steven Bubon got out of a jam in the bottom of the second inning, during which he surrendered consecutive, one-out singles before striking out back-to-back batters to leave both runners on base.

Howland added to its lead in the third inning with an Ansel single to center field, which drove in Sully O’Donnell, who had doubled to deep center field. Fitch then failed to capitalize on a leadoff single by Loomis and a subsequent hit by Kessler, as two pop outs left both stranded.

The missed opportunity in the third inning effectively served as the beginning of the end for the Falcons.

The Tigers began the fourth with three singles before Santino Donatelli drove in all three with a triple to deep right-center field, giving his team a 10-0 lead. After Gebhardt drew a walk, O’Donnell sacrifice bunted to score Donatelli. Following another walk, Brady Lind relieved Jobe.

Before walking Ansel, his first batter, Lind threw a wild pitch, and a Fitch error followed, allowing Gebhardt to score Howland’s 12th and final run. The game ended after the fifth inning due to the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s 10-run mercy rule.

“It was a complete butt-whooping,” Paris said. “I don’t know what happened from yesterday. … I don’t know if our guys – I tried to warn them, Howland’s a team that just doesn’t quit, they’re a bunch of fighters, and they’re tough kids and I knew they were going to come back swinging. Yesterday, we had the bats going, and then today, it was totally the opposite.”

The Falcons finished Tuesday’s game with four hits and two errors, a stark difference from Monday, when they had 12 hits and zero errors. Conversely, the Tigers, who had four hits and an error Monday, had a dozen hits and only one error Tuesday.

Bubon earned the win, finishing his day on the mound with six strikeouts and four hits, three walks and no runs allowed. Fitch’s four pitchers – Daniel Heddleson pitched the final two-thirds of an inning – combined for four strikeouts, 11 earned runs and nine walks.

“Bubon had a phenomenal day on the mound, really kind of shut them down,” Taylor said. “Yesterday, they jumped on us. Hats off to them, they’re a really good team and I wish them luck the rest of the year. But I’m really hoping this is kind of how the rest of the season is going to go for us. I think this team is really capable of doing well.”

Tuesday’s result puts Fitch and Howland even at 1-1 in the AAC.

The Falcons, after nonconference meetings with Lakeview and South Range on Thursday and Friday, respectively, begin next week with a back-to-back vs. Canfield. Similarly, the Tigers play Warren G. Harding next Monday and Tuesday after matchups with Louisville and McDonald on Thursday and Saturday, respectively.