High school baseball: Dom Bell dominates as Black River beats Firelands

SULLIVAN TWP. — A dominant pitching performance by freshman Dom Bell and some opportunistic hitting by the host Pirates kept Black River undefeated in Lorain County League baseball action Thursday with a 3-1 win over Firelands. The victory improved Black River's record to 5-3 overall and 5-0 in the LCL. Firelands slipped to 4-5, 2-3. Bell improved his record to 2-1 as he amassed a season-high 11 strikeouts. He scattered four hits, four walks and hit a pair of batters while facing 29 batters. Bell had a total of 111 pitches, 68 for strikes. "My off-speed pitches were working very well," said Bell. "Once I got the off-speed stuff working they didn't know what's coming. The team chemistry we have is great. All the hard work we've been putting in with our coaches pushing us is really paying off." Thursday's game was originally scheduled to be played at Firelands, but with the very wet grounds at the Falcons' home field the game was switched to Black River around mid-day. "I think I was in sixth period in lunch when I got the word (about the venue change)," said Bell. "That made me pretty happy. We just need to keep working and start hitting the ball more. We should have had 6-7 runs today. We need to get all the runs that we can get for insurance." Bell now has a total of 20 strikeouts for the season. He totaled nine strikeouts in his other start, a 4-3 win over defending LCL champ Keystone on April 9. "Firelands every year is fundamentally strong. They're a tough team and well-coached," said Black River coach Jake O'Connor. "Last year they got us pretty good twice (15-4 and 20-9). Our freshman Dom Bell did a heck of a job. Defense did a good job helping him out, too." Josh Stuart brought home the Pirates' first run in the bottom of the second via fielder's choice on an infield groundout. Stuart's RBI knotted the score at 1-1. Black River's two go-ahead runs came in the bottom of the fourth. Trent Boggs was first hit by a pitch by Daniel Kothe. Dozier Hendershot bunted and when Kothe threw the ball away, Boggs advanced to third. Hendershot then stole second to put the pair in scoring position. Boggs then scored from third on an infield groundout by pinch hitter Hunter Mate. After Stuart flew out to left, Bell drove home Hendershot with an infield groundout. "I'm super proud of Hunter Mate," said O'Connor. "He came up with a huge pinch hit with guys on second and third. He just put the ball in play. "This conference is up for grabs. The conference is very even. Every team is very comparable. We talk about it every day to keep things in view at the present moment." Last year Firelands finished second in the LCL with an 11-3 record and finished 14-11 overall. Black River finished 6-8 in the LCL, 9-12 overall. Firelands had runners in scoring position in the third, fourth, sixth and seventh innings in Thursday, but couldn't the runner beyond second base in each situation. "They had good timely hitting and we threw the ball around. We've been doing that most of the year," said Firelands coach Dan Ransom. "I've been preaching to them and telling them to take care of the ball better on defense." All three runs relinquished by Kothe were unearned as the result of his two throwing errors. Kothe scattered five hits while chalking up four strikeouts. Like Bell, Kothe also hit two batters. Kothe had a total of 89 pitches, 59 for strikes. Freshman right fielder Brayden Alberti had the Falcons' lone RBI coming in the top of the second inning. "We're being too selective at the plate," said Ransom. "We're looking for that one pitch. If it's not there they're not swinging. It's just good timely hitting which we don't have. "We're looking to the four seniors that we have. They know what the LCL is. What know what teams are the cream of the crop. We know where we. We know where we can be. It's all leadership. It all starts with them. We can talk to them all how to do it but there are the ones that have to come out on the field and do it for us." Contact Paul Heyse at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.