Staff photo / Joel Whetzel. Austintown Fitch senior Joe Roth fires a pitch towards home plate against Warren JFK. Roth struck out seven and walked none in 6.1 innings of work. Fitch won 7-2.

AUSTINTOWN — A five-run first inning was all Austintown Fitch needed Thursday, as that fast start propelled the Falcons to a 7-2 nonconference victory over Warren John F. Kennedy at Coppola Field.

Fitch (15-4) piled up five of its nine hits during the first frame, including three triples and a double.

“We just put together good at-bats,” said Fitch coach Joe Paris. “The one thing that stood out to me most of all — we were hitting the ball hard, but we had a couple base hits to left field, we had a couple up the middle, we had a couple down the right field line. So we did a great job of spraying the ball over the field and scoring (runs) when we had guys in scoring position.”

Making his first varsity start, Carter Owens started the onslaught with a one-out triple on a shot deep into right field. Mike Sciortino followed with his own triple, and then Brandon Popio singled Sciortino in to give Fitch a 2-0 lead.

Carson Fuller followed that single two batters later with an RBI triple, and then scored on a passed ball. The scoring run ended with an RBI double from Brandon Stephenson, who drove in Jake Corll, who had walked earlier in the inning.

Owens finished the day 2-for-3 with two runs scored, while Sciortino went 2-for-3 and Popio went 3-for-3.

“Not only was this (Owens’) first game, but I put him in the two-hole (of the batting order),” Paris said. “The reason I did that is he puts the ball in play, and he hits the ball the opposite way to the right side. I thought he was a perfect fit for the two-hole, so that’s why he hit there.”

The run support was plenty enough for ace Joe Roth, who worked 6.1 innings and gave up just two runs, both of which were unearned. He struck out seven, scattered five hits and didn’t allow any walks.

“Joe did a great job spotting his fast ball. His slider was up a bit, but then as the game went on, he started hitting the spots with the slider. We mixed in the changeup, which he’s been struggling with a little bit, but he did a good job with that today,” Paris assessed.

He added, “Most importantly, he threw strikes. He didn’t walk anybody, and that’s the main thing. The defense kind of let him down a little bit (with three errors), and he had to make extra pitches. So his pitch count got high, and that’s kind of why I yanked him in the seventh inning.”

Stevie Palmer came in with one out in the seventh and finished the Eagles (10-4) off.

Kennedy starter Jaden Rishel settled in after the first inning to last five. He gave up seven earned runs on nine hits, walked two and fanned two.

The Eagles got a pair of runs back in the fourth after a fielding error by Fitch. Rishel and Quinn Meola each knocked a two-out single, and then Rishel came around to score on a pop-fly to center field that was dropped. Meola scored on an RBI single from Santino Ciambotti.

“Some things we were all right with, but we still have to put it together through the whole batting order,” said JFK coach Jim Ciambotti. “There were spurts, but not the consistency we need.”

And, he pointed out, falling behind early to a pitcher like Roth spells trouble for most teams.

“There were a couple of misplayed balls, and that kind of got us in a hole. You don’t want to get in a hole with (Roth), and we did that. Before we settled down, we were down 5-0, and it’s hard to come back on a quality starter like they have,” Ciambotti added.

jwhetzel@tribtoday.com