Juniors’ season comes to an end

ZANESVILLE – Falling down 4-0 through two innings was not the start the Junior Pioneers needed in Game 3 of the AAABA regional series on Sunday.

The Juniors showed some poise, scoring five runs with two outs in the fourth inning.

However, Tom Mulig’s three-run home run highlighted a four-run fifth, which put Cleveland ahead for good in an 8-7 win over the Juniors at Gant Stadium.

The Blaze won the series 2-1 and will head to Johnstown, Pennsylvania for the National AAABA tournament, while the Juniors ended the season with a 31-5 mark.

“We were probably playing our best ball about halfway, three-quarters of the way through the season,” Juniors coach Dave Balo said. “The challenge is to be playing your best at the end. I’m not sure the reason why we weren’t, but give Cleveland credit for winning the series.”

The Blaze took advantage of some errors in the first two innings, scoring twice in both the first and second frames for a 4-0 lead.

A.J. Kazmierczak walked and Michael Pagano singled with two outs in the fourth to start the Juniors’ rally. Joe Shumar followed with a two-run double, while Austin Devore, Matt Lynn and Vayden Wood all added RBI singles to put the Juniors ahead 5-4.

Mulig belted his shot over the right-centerfield fence to help Cleveland respond, while Mike Martin quieted the Juniors until the seventh to earn the win. Joe Burley picked up the save.

The Juniors scored twice with two outs in the seventh, but couldn’t bring home the tying run.

“Cleveland was swinging early, and we had some costly errors to gift wrap some runs,” Balo said. “They hit the ball well and so did we, and the score reflected the type of game it was.”