Ellwood City Downs Shenango In Opener of 75th Little League Tournament – Ellwood City, PA news

Ellwood City Downs Shenango In Opener of 75th Little League Tournament – Ellwood City, PA news

Ellwood City downed Shenango, 5-0, in the opening game of the 75th Ellwood City Little League Tournament at Freidhoff Field Thursday night. Gage Pflugh and Jace Vandevort combined on a no-hitter and Asher Fabich smacked a two-run homer and double to lead Ellwood City. After two scoreless innings, Ellwood City scored three runs in the bottom of the third inning with a two-out rally. Adrien Evans singled on a line drive to center field and Fabich followed with a two-run over the center field fence to stake Ellwood City to a 2-0 lead. Vandevort followed with a single and moved to third base on a single by Brady Beightley. Pflugh followed with a single scoring Vandevort to up the Ellwood City lead to 3-0. After a scoreless fourth inning, Ellwood City added two insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. Once again it was Evans and Fabich starting the rally. Evans lead off with a walk and Fabich followed with a double. With one out, Beightly singled to score Evans to increase the Ellwood City lead to 4-0. Pflugh followed with a single scoring Fabich to raise the lead to 5-0. Vandevort closed the game out on the mound with three strikeouts in the top of the sixth inning. Pflugh was the winning pitcher for Ellwood City. He tossed three hitless innings and fanned six batters and issued one walk. Vandevort fired three hitless innings and fanned seven batters with two walks. The right-side of the Ellwood City infield, second baseman Rocco Gagric and first baseman Jaxon Wyant, helped preserve the no-hitter with with stellar defensive plays. Shortstop Sawyer Henry excelled defensively for Shenango. The defensive play of the game was made by Shenango right-fielder Alex Llewellyn who snagged a line-drive by Gagric to save an extra-base hit. Fabich led Ellwood City at the plate with a home run, double, two RBI and two runs scored. Pflugh added three singles with two RBI. Beightley added two singles and an RBI. Evans singled, walked and scored twice. Vandevort and Frederick added singles to complete the 10-hit offensive attack. Ellwood City will next face Laurel on Friday evening at 6:00 p.m. Friday Schedule: Ellwood City vs Laurel…6:00 PM Boardman,OH  vs Neshannock…8:00 PM Saturday Schedule Butler vs Game 3 loser…10:00 PM Shenango vs Game 4 loser…Noon