{"id":58677,"date":"2026-05-01T12:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T12:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/58677\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T12:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T12:51:08","slug":"geneva-baseball-rallies-past-conneaut-behind-two-out-hitting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/58677\/","title":{"rendered":"Geneva Baseball Rallies Past Conneaut Behind Two-Out Hitting"},"content":{"rendered":"

GENEVA\u2013The Geneva baseball<\/a> team delivered one clutch hit after another Thursday night.<\/p>\n

The Eagles scored all 14 of their runs with two outs and erupted after a slow start to rally past Conneaut baseball<\/a> for a 14-4 Chagrin Valley Conference<\/a> Lake Division victory in six innings.<\/p>\n

Trailing 1-0 entering the bottom of the fourth, Geneva finally broke through with a five-run rally and never looked back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s real big. We preach consistency and next opportunity,\u201d said Geneva head coach JT Fobell<\/a>. \u201cThe first couple of innings, we were struggling, kind of beating ourselves at the plate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been talking with the guys about staying in that next pitch, next at-bat, next opportunity mentality. Just because you failed early, stay positive, keep your confidence, and know the work they\u2019ve put in is eventually going to take over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conneaut grabbed the early lead in the opening inning after three walks loaded the bases. A passed ball allowed Keigan Spring to score for a 1-0 advantage.<\/p>\n

Geneva\u2019s offense was quiet through the first three innings before the Eagles finally broke through in the fourth.<\/p>\n

Nick Kustala<\/a> sparked the rally with a leadoff double and eventually scored with two outs. KJ Fobell<\/a> later came home on consecutive passed balls, giving Geneva a 2-1 lead.<\/p>\n

Kaiden Cottrell<\/a> followed with an RBI single, Bryce Junker<\/a> added another run-scoring hit, and Logan Rustic<\/a> capped the inning with an RBI single, stretching the lead to 5-1.<\/p>\n

Geneva kept the pressure on in the fifth. A balk and another passed ball allowed KJ Fobell and Hutchens to score before Rustic\u2019s pop-up dropped for an error that plated two more runs for a 9-1 advantage.<\/p>\n

Conneaut attempted to chip away in the sixth. Nick Llamas<\/a> walked and eventually scored on passed balls before Colby Stiltner<\/a> laid down an RBI bunt to score Marcus Garcia.<\/p>\n

After Stiltner later crossed the plate on a dropped third strike, the Spartans had trimmed the deficit to 9-4.<\/p>\n

Geneva answered immediately.<\/p>\n

Brendon Fobell<\/a> singled, stole third, and scored on a passed ball before Cottrell drove in another run with a single. Ryland Besco<\/a> later added an RBI on a dropped third strike, and Ruscin ended the game with a walk-off RBI double.<\/p>\n

The Eagles\u2019 ability to stay composed after the slow start impressed their head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving these seniors, these four guys, they\u2019ve been here and played a lot of baseball,\u201d Coach Fobell said. \u201cHaving them keep everybody mentally in check and relay that confidence and next opportunity approach has been huge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve done a good job setting the example, and it\u2019s trickled down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rustic led Geneva offensively, going 3-for-5 with four RBI. Hutchens finished 3-for-3 with two runs scored, while Kustala went 2-for-3 with a run scored. Junker also collected two hits in the win.<\/p>\n

Rustic earned the victory on the mound after allowing one run on two hits with five strikeouts over three innings.<\/p>\n

KJ Fobell worked 2 1\/3 innings in relief, and Junker closed out the game.<\/p>\n

Conneaut managed three hits, getting one apiece from Daniel Huya<\/a>, Jacob Thomas<\/a>, and Evan Vendetti<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Brady Morrison<\/a> provided solid relief work for the Spartans, striking out seven over 3 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

Geneva visits Lake Catholic High School on Friday, while Conneaut travels to Fairport Harding High School on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Top PlayersLogan Rustic (Geneva): 3-for-5, 4 RBIHutchens (Geneva): 3-for-3, 2 RKaiden Cottrell (Geneva): RBI single, scored runNick Kustala (Geneva): 2-for-3, double, runBryce Junker (Geneva): 2-for-4, RBIBrady Morrison (Conneaut): 3 2\/3 IP, 7 KMore Baseball Coverage From OhioVarsity.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GENEVA\u2013The Geneva baseball team delivered one clutch hit after another Thursday night. The Eagles scored all 14 of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[32638,21085,21086,21087,32639,32640,32641,32642,32643,32644,65,21088,10793,32645,21089,32646,32647,21092,21094,32648,21095],"class_list":{"0":"post-58677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-geneva","8":"tag-brady-morrison","9":"tag-brendon-fobell","10":"tag-bryce-junker","11":"tag-chagrin-valley-conference","12":"tag-colby-stiltner","13":"tag-conneaut-baseball","14":"tag-conneaut-spartans","15":"tag-cvc-baseball","16":"tag-daniel-huya","17":"tag-evan-vendetti","18":"tag-geneva","19":"tag-geneva-baseball","20":"tag-geneva-eagles","21":"tag-jacob-thomas","22":"tag-jt-fobell","23":"tag-kaiden-cottrell","24":"tag-kj-fobell","25":"tag-logan-rustic","26":"tag-nick-kustala","27":"tag-nick-llamas","28":"tag-ryland-besco"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116499414121867162","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}