High school baseball: Mistake-prone Elyria loses to Olmsted Falls in SWC matchup

SANDUSKY — For three innings Elyria looked like the team Pioneers coach Jordan Connell hoped he would see this season. Then, in the fourth inning, the team reverted back to bad habits and bad baseball. Elyria committed four errors in the fourth inning, which led to four Olmsted Falls runs, allowing the Bulldogs to roll to an easy 10-1 victory in a Southwestern Conference game at Sports Force Park. Elyria (0-4, 0-2 SWC) played as the home team in the game originally scheduled at Olmsted Falls and scored its only run in the first inning when Ryan Rubinoski led off with a walk and scored without a hit, thanks to a wild pitch and a pair of infield groundouts. Olmsted Falls freshman pitcher Mason Cerovac made the most of his first varsity start, holding the Pioneers to a hit over 5⅓ innings to pick up the win. Jake Platner came on relief to retire the final five Elyria hitters to secure the first victory of the year for the Bulldogs, who improved to 1-2. "We're not making routine plays, we're not capitalizing when we're ahead in the count 0-2 and 1-2 and we're not really hitting the ball well," Connell said. "There are going to be some lineup changes coming. I think once we make those lineup changes everything will be corrected." After tying the game on a Myles Meyer RBI single in the second, Olmsted Falls took the lead for good an inning later thanks to a Joey Goetz sacrifice fly to score Jack Hatgas. Meyer finished the day 4-for-5 with singles in his first four at-bats. He also drove in a pair of runs and scored on a wild pitch in the fourth. Cerovac kept the Pioneers off balance, retiring eight in a row after a leadoff walk to Rubinoski. Cerovac only allowed two balls out of the infield. "That was Mason's first varsity start and he did a good job of getting ahead of hitters," Olmsted Falls coach Aaron Zawadzki said. "He competed his tail off for us. He's produced for us in the offseason. He had a very promising outing last week." The top four hitters in the Bulldogs' lineup went a combined 9-for-17 with five runs scored. Olmsted Falls' No. 8 hitter, left fielder Logan Connelly, also had a big day, going 2-for-3 with a walk and three runs scored. Elyria, which has been held to 10 runs in its first four games, only got one hit, a fourth inning Ethan Hyer single, and only advanced one runner as far as second base over the final six innings. "I think we have a lot of people who are complacent and they think they have their jobs locked down now," Connell said. "We're not playing team baseball, we're playing selfish. Once we play team baseball, I think we'll be all right." Sophomore Maurice Stone started on the mound for the Pioneers allowing three runs, two earned, in 3⅓ innings. Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chronicle.com.