The Boardman Spartans will square off against the Springfield Tigers at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.
Howland hit Boardman with a four-run seventh inning on Friday, which goes a long way in explaining the final result. The Spartans fell just short of the Tigers by a score of 5-4. The Spartans have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Collin Resetar was a force to be reckoned with on the mound despite the final result: he didn't allow a single earned run while striking out seven over 6.2 innings pitched. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in four consecutive appearances.
At the plate, Boardman saw three different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Donovan Whippo, who went 2-for-3 with one RBI.
Meanwhile, after only one run in their last contest, Springfield made sure to put some runs up on the board against East Palestine on Thursday. The Tigers were the clear victors by an 18-1 margin over the Bulldogs. Considering the Tigers have won eight matchups by more than eight runs this season, Thursday's blowout was nothing new.
Ian Anderson made a big impact while hitting and pitching. On the mound, he pitched five innings while giving up just one earned run off one hit. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in strikeouts (four). He was also big at the plate, getting on base in three of his four plate appearances with three runs and two RBI.
In other batting news, Springfield got a massive performance out of Bruno LaRocca, who went 3-for-5 with three runs, four RBI, and one double. Those four RBI gave LaRocca a new career-high. Noah Troggio was another key player, going 3-for-4 with three runs, one stolen base, and one double.
Springfield always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .619. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as East Palestine only posted an OBP of .273.
Springfield's win bumped their record up to 12-8. As for Boardman, their loss dropped their record down to 8-11.
Boardman came out on top in a nail-biter against Springfield in their previous matchup back in May of 2025, sneaking past 2-0. Will the Spartans repeat their success, or do the Tigers have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
