By Roger Gordon

Correspondent

Rootstown won two of three games last week to continue a hot start to the 2025 season and improve to 7-2.

First, on April 17, the Rovers defeated Springfield 5-2 on the road.

Senior pitcher Sean Boveington started and went three innings, yielding just two hits while striking out seven and walking two.

“This was Sean’s first appearance of the season,” head coach Keith Waesch said. “He’s not a pitcher who is in our normal rotation. We were facing multiple games in a short period of time. Sean is very capable of getting high-school hitters out. He got off to a bit of a rough start in the first inning, but settled down and pitched three good innings for us. Basically, he did what we asked of him.”

Junior Ethan White pitched the next three innings, and senior Brady Kreitzburg closed the game out and got the save.

At the plate, sophomore third baseman Carson Hayn singled three times, knocked in two runs and scored once.

The next day, on April 18, Rootstown won 3-1 at Kidron Central Christian.

Sophomore left-handed pitcher Anthony Pratt made a triumphant return from a dislocated right shoulder and made his first appearance of the season. He started and went five innings, giving up four hits while fanning eight and walking four.

“We were very impressed,” said Waesch. “Those were his first varsity innings ever. He did a very nice job. He gave us five solid innings and kept us in the game.”

Junior George Luli pitched the sixth inning; Kreitzburg pitched the seventh and got his third save of the week (his first one came April 14 against Mogadore).

Pratt and Kreitzburg helped their own causes with strong performances at the plate — Kreitzburg had three singles and an RBI while Pratt singled twice and had an RBI and a run.

Senior catcher Blake Postlethwait had an RBI double.

Three days later, on April 21, the Rovers fell 5-0 at Lake Center Christian.

Junior pitcher Bryce Harless started and went five innings, giving up six hits while striking out three and walking two (one intentional). White went the rest of the way and also singled twice.

Waesch is happy with his team, but knows it must play even better.

“I think we’ve played fairly solid baseball throughout these last three or four weeks to start the season,” he said. “It’s been difficult, as it has for every team, due to the fact that the weather has affected our schedule. We need to get better at the plate, more consistent and be able

to come up with two or three hits an inning whereas at times we end up with zero hits or one hit per inning. We need to string together some hits. If we can put four or five runs on the board with our pitching the way it’s been, we’ll win a lot of games.”