Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Austintown Fitch’s Jack Knight throws a pitch earlier this season during a matchup against Boardman.

AUSTINTOWN — Entering the 2023 season, Austintown Fitch coach Joe Paris said his relatively young squad was eager to compete for an All-American Conference championship and rebound from a disappointing finish to the 2022 season.

The Falcons are in position to do just that.

Austintown Fitch (12-6, 5-1 AAC) will take on Canfield (10-3, 5-0 AAC) on Thursday and Friday, with the winner of the series almost assured of winning the All-American crown.

It’s been an up-and-down season for the Falcons, but, having won five in a row before Saturday’s loss to Hubbard, Paris feels Fitch is starting to hit its stride at a critical time.

“I just think we’re starting to gel,” Paris said after the Falcons’ topped South Range last week. “We’re a young team, and it took some time. I just think we’re starting to solidify our lineup a bit, and I think things are starting to happen for us.”

Closing pitcher Carson Fuller added, “The team chemistry is good, and we’re starting to play well together. … It’s going to be a fun rest of the season.”

Austintown Fitch began its season with a 9-4 loss to South Range before ripping off four consecutive wins to end March with a record of 4-1. Two of those were AAC victories over Howland.

April was much more of a mixed bag, as the Falcons split a series with Boardman to kick off a 3-4 stretch before the team’s five-game win streak.

During those weeks, Paris says the team was getting different contributions from different players, but only recently started to piece together more of a top-to-bottom effort, whether that’s getting on base, advancing runners, driving them in, etc.

The Falcons have had relatively even production for much of the campaign, however. Frank Senediak is batting .250 with 12 RBIs, the latter mark tied for a team high. Rocco DiFlorio is batting .282 with a team-high four doubles and has 12 RBIs, as well. Drew Kaschak is batting .320 with 10 RBIs, Carson Fuller is at an impressive .400 average with seven RBIs, Jackson Cheeks is hitting for .370 and nine RBIs, and Hayden Warmouth has five RBIs and a .311 average.

“All season long, we’ve had a hard time getting a bunch of guys hot at one time,” Paris said. “So periodically, it’s been one person hits there, a couple guys getting hot there. Some guys are cold. (The win over South Range was) the closest I think we’ve been where one through nine produced in so many different ways: bunting, hitting the ball the other way, doing those kinds of things.”

What’s been relatively constant is the Falcons’ pitching.

Mason Petridis, a sophomore, is 3-0 on the year with an ERA of just 0.92. He’s allowed a batting average of .162. Jack Knight is 1-2 with an ERA of 2.91, and Frank Pugliese is 1-1.

Owens has an ERA of 3.73 and has stranded a team-high 24 runners. He’s given up an opposing batting average of .259.

As the offense catches up with Fitch’s defense, Paris feels the team is moving in the right direction as the postseason draws near. After the Canfield series, Fitch visits Ursuline on May 8 and then hosts Alliance and Ursuline on May 9 and May 10, respectively.

“I hope so, and that’s the point right? That’s what we want to do. We want to hit our stride in May,” Paris said.