PITRONE SHINES ON BOTH ENDS

By Bill Schneider Gates Mills, OH -- Sean Pitrone continued his impressive 2025 with a signature performance against the Hawken Hawks Friday afternoon. The Junior threw a complete game one hitter with eight strikeouts and added two hits and two RBI at the plate. The Lancers took down Hawken 8-0 in a battle of long-time rivals and previously undefeated teams. The Lancers scored five runs in the second. Tyler Hall got a one out single to start the attack. A Tyler Pozsgai walk and Christian Kerner single loaded the bases with one out for CJ Santagata. Santagata came into the game struggling at the plate but put together three quality at bats on the day. The first was a tough at bat that eventually lead to a walk to make it 1-0. Brady Benisek followed with a liner to short right that was caught shallow enough to prevent Pozsgai from tagging up. Just when it appeared that Hawken was gonna escape with minimal damage, Brady Olsen stepped to the plate. Olsen aggravated his back diving for a ball the day before vs Shaker and was not sure he could play. But "O-L" showed no signs of trouble when he lined the 2-2 pitch down the right field line for a bases clearing triple. Pitrone followed with a grounder in the hole at third that he beat out for an infield single, scoring Olsen and capping the five run second. It was more than Pitrone would need. It was easily his best start of his young career. The only question became if he would get the no hitter. Hawken came in scoring a ridiculous 75 runs in their first 5 games of the year, but you would have never guessed it by the way Pitrone shut the Hawks down. He gave up a clean grounder up the middle for a single to start the fifth. It would be the only blemish on the day. Pitrone (2-0) scattered four walks on the day, but the Hawks never threatened. In the seventh, he appeared to tire. He walked the leadoff man and, after a strikeout, walked another. Pitching coach Rick Seibert came out to the mound and asked Pitrone if he was done. He told Seibert what he wanted to hear, so he went back to the dugout. The next pitch he threw caused a pop up that Titas caught in foul territory for the second out. He struck out the last Hawk hitter to end it and complete the gem. Titas did not record a hit on the day but had two RBI on sac flies in the fourth and again in the sixth, which just missed going out. The Big Blue Machine had four more stolen bases on the day to bring their season total to 21 in six games. Gilmour soars into Easter week with a 6-0 record with games vs WRA, VASJ and Berea-Midpark coming up.