Summer baseball: T3 Warhawks 18U team gives Hawaii a battle before falling

AVON — The T3 Warhawks 18U baseball team learned a little bit about itself Tuesday while also helping set its pitching rotation for a stretch of eight tournaments in eight weeks when it hosted the Hawaii Tigers in an exhibition game at Mercy Health Stadium. Despite falling behind by six runs early, the Warhawks staged a late rally and had the potential go-ahead run up to bat in the ninth before falling 9-7. Seven pitchers, including recent Elyria grad Nic Chernitsky, took the mound as Warhawks coach Mike Perry tried to figure out who will be able to give him quality innings at this weekend's 965 Midwest Challenge. "It's always fun to face great competition," said Chernitsky, who surrendered three runs in 1 2/3 innings against a Hawaii team that traditionally produces Division I talent. "You hear so much about these guys all year, just what cool guys they are, so it's fun to have the chance to play against them." The Warhawks scored first in the second inning without the benefit of a base hit when Alejandro DeJesus walked and came home on a Brady Belegrin ground out. After DeJesus crossed the plate a line of showers forced a brief rain delay but the all-turf surface was ready to resume play less than 20 minutes later. Avon Lake's C.J. Gurule was roughed up for four runs in the fourth inning after allowing five consecutive hits as the Tigers took a lead they would never relinquish. Perry, the former head coach at Oberlin High School and currently an assistant at Elyria Catholic, tried to get all of his pitchers some work against the potent Hawaii lineup. "I wanted to get a look at some arms I really haven't had a chance to look at," Perry said. "I thought we pitched really well today. Defensively we didn't do our pitching any favors. When you're playing a team like that, that can hit, if you leave the door wide open they're going to come right through it." Perry said what sets the Tigers — who are spending most of the month of June playing in Ohio for the third consecutive year — apart from the teams the Warhawks usually face in local tournaments is the depth one through nine in their lineup, which leaves little margin for error for opposing pitchers. The Warhawks offense, which has struggled early this season, broke through for three runs in the fifth inning as Medina's Nathan Korduba doubled home Amherst grad Chase Mayer and Belegrin. Olmsted Falls alum James Jones also scored on a wild pitch. In the seventh, another Medina grad, Zach Hartman, produced a run, driving home pinch hitter Noah Phillips with a single. The Warhawks trailed by four heading into the bottom of the ninth. Belegrin led off the inning with a single and Phillips followed with his second hit but Hawaii's Kila Teixeira settled down to get the final two outs to preserve the win. "This Hawaii teams comes to Ohio every year and they want to play us because they want competition," Perry said. "After you fly eight or 10 hours you don't want to come and run-rule teams, you don't get anything out of that. They know we have a solid organization and we're going to push them." Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.