Salzman Leads Nova To Rout Of Northeast

In a game marred by eight Northeast miscues, Nova thoroughly dominated and out-manned their district opponent en route to a 13-0 victory.

After the Titans went quietly in the first, the Hurricanes put two runners on in their half of the inning. Juan Fuentes and Matthew Schotanus were stranded when clean-up hitter Jarrod Rubenstein went down on strikes, followed by Corey Korenic’s fly ball to center. That was the end of the Northeast threat on this evening.

The Titans scored six runs in the second, aided largely by four Hurricanes errors. There were three hits in the inning, provided by Lee Kinsel, George Gugino, and Ron Patella, but the tone had been set for the evening with the errors.

In the third, Nova sent eleven batters to the plate, one more than the previous inning. The Titans scored six more runs, five of which were unearned, and they took a 12-0 lead into the bottom of the third.

As the game got out of hand, Nova coach Pat McQuaid started to make wholesale changes to his lineup. The coach ended up using twenty-four players in the five inning game, and how his bench performed pleased McQuaid.

“Kinsel played a good ball game,” said McQuaid. “He’s a backup second baseman for us. He got on all three times up, and made three good plays in the field. We got production from some of the guys who normally don’t play. Skylar (Fox) hit the ball hard, and had a triple, and Michael Meadows had an RBI triple.”

Nova’s Reed Salzman picked up the win Tuesday, going four shutout innings, while yielding three harmless singles. Salzman struck out five in the outing and walked none. Closing out the game in the fifth for the Titans was George Gugino, striking out two of the three batters he faced.

Over the past couple of seasons, District 16-5A has been reduced to Nova and St. Thomas playing for the district championship, and it appears that the same scenario will play out this season. Dillard, Northeast, and Ely appear to be no competition for the Raiders and Titans.

Nova will face Dillard, Plantation, and Ely over their next three games before a showdown with St. Thomas on March 4th.

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