Baseball Game Preview: Howland Tigers vs. Austintown-Fitch Falcons

The Howland Tigers will square off against the Austintown-Fitch Falcons at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Howland has three straight wins, Austintown-Fitch has eight straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.

Last Monday, Howland got the win against Salem by a conclusive 14-1. Considering the Tigers have won three matches by more than 11 runs this season, Monday's blowout was nothing new.

Steven Bubon

Earned Runs

04/07/25 @ Salem	1
03/31/25 @ Austintown-Fitch	1
03/28/25 vs William Blount	1

Howland got a great performance from Steven Bubon as he struck out six batters over five innings while giving up just one earned run off four hits (and only one walk). Bubon has become a key player for the Tigers: the team is 2-1 when he allows at most one earned run, but 1-3 otherwise.

On the hitting side, Howland let Dominic Santee and Keaton Perry run wild. Santee scored three runs while going 2-for-3, while Perry went 3-for-4 with five RBI, one run, and one double. Santee is becoming a predictor of Howland's success: when he posts at least two runs the team is 3-1 (and 0-3 when he doesn't). The team also got some help courtesy of Brayden Kovarik, who scored two runs while going 3-for-3.

Howland was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .469. They are 3-1 when they post a batting average of .375 or better.

For whatever reason, it's the away team that's had the advantage when Austintown-Fitch and Cardinal Mooney meet (three straight games heading into this one) and that held true again on Thursday. The Falcons might be feeling deja-vu: they lost 18-9 to the Cardinals, which was the same score (and result) they got the week prior.

Howland's victory bumped their record up to 3-4. As for Austintown-Fitch, their defeat dropped their record down to 0-7.

Howland took their win against Austintown-Fitch when the teams last played last Monday by a conclusive 17-4 score. Will the Tigers repeat their success, or do the Falcons have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.