The Italy Gladiator JV team took on the Avalon Eagles Tuesday night in pre-district game and did so with great success. The final score was 12-7 for our local baseball team.

Pitching for the Gladiators was sophomore Reid Jacinto. He has promise to be a force to reckoned with this season. Guiding his Gladiators to the win column, Jacinto pitched strong.

In the 6th inning, junior catcher Ross Stiles took his turn at the mound. Coach Josh Ward had good things to say about both pitchers and his team, “I thought the JV played well last night (Tuesday), I was proud of the way our guys were swinging the bat in the early innings. They kind of cooled off later on in the game, we have to work on keeping it going for the full game. I thought that Reid pitched really well, especially since it was his first time on the mound this year, and once Ross got settled in, he did a good job of closing it out. All in all, I was proud of the way the guys performed, several kids were playing in positions they haven’t been used to, and I thought they adjusted to that really well. It is good to be able to play and work at different positions. We still need to clean up some defensive miscues, but that will come with more and more practice time.”

The next Gladiator baseball game will be preempted by our Varsity Basketball playoff game as they march to victory in Stephenville on Friday, March 4, 8:00 pm.

Our first district game for the Italy Gladiator Baseball team will be at home and is scheduled Tuesday, March 8 against Hubbard. JV begins play at 4:30 and varsity begins at 7:00.