Photo by Andrew Grimm Steubenville's Matt Fabbro fires a pitch Friday against Steubenville Catholic.

STEUBENVILLE — Justin Banks has seen his team put in a lot of work in preparation for the season, his first at the helm of Steubenville’s baseball team.

On opening day Friday, all of that work resulted in the new skipper’s first victory.

Big Red jumped on city rival Steubenville Catholic Central early and did not let up, pulling away for a 10-0 victory in six innings on brisk evening at the Crimson Complex.

“I’m just happy that these guys came out and played the way they’ve been practicing since June,” said Banks, who was debuting as the head coach after nearly two decades assisting Hall-of-Farmer Fred Heatherington. “These guys did everything that we asked and I just loved seeing that. We pitched well, we hit well, we had one mental mistake but overall I loved it. They did what we’ve been preaching to them, they’re trusting us and I’m just really proud of them.”

Big Red, sporting brand new uniforms, plated four runs in the bottom of the first and it proved to be more than enough.

Seven different players had a hit for Big Red, which finished with 14 total, and seven different players had at least one RBI.

“That was huge to jump out and get the momentum early,” Banks said. “We wanted to keep our foot on the gas and we did. I hope we play like that all year.”

Senior starting pitcher Matt Fabbro fired a gem to start the season, tossing a six inning complete game, two hit shutout with 14 strikeouts and just one walk and one hit batter.

He fanned the side twice and struck out at least two batters in every inning. Three of his punch outs came at the expense of his brother, Central leadoff hitter and shortstop Michael Fabbro.

“He was on today,” Banks said of the Fabbro brother in Crimson and Black. “His curveball was working, his fastball was working, he couldn’t get his change up over but he didn’t have to because he such good command of his other stuff.

“We told him to pitch to contact and he didn’t even do that, he was pitching straight to the catcher today. He did a great job.”

For the Crusaders, who also had a new coach debuting in Andrew Henry, a couple of costly mistakes piled up and the deficit just became too steep a hill to climb for a youthful group.

Central had back-to-back singles from Zach Bryan and Joseph Vranish in the top of the first, but stranded both and did not have another hit the rest of the way, finishing with just two more base runners in the next five innings.

“We came out with two hits in the first inning, so you could tell the boys wanted to compete,” Henry said. “But, as the game went on, the errors started to compound and put us on our heals a little bit and that kind of led to the result that we had today.

“We had one scrimmage earlier this week, so this was our second time on the field in a game situation. We have three freshmen starting and the majority of our starting line up are underclassmen. Sometimes it takes a few games to get settled in. They’ll continue to learn, but baseball is a game where you have to learn quick.”

The Crusaders finished with five errors in the game, three of which ended up resulting in unearned runs.

After a tough start — five of the first six Big Red batters reached base — Vranish settled in on the mound for Central and did finish without issuing a walk in his four-plus innings.

“He did a fantastic job of battling through the defensive struggles behind him,” Henry said of his starter. “He did a nice job of staying true to himself and pitching hard despite what the scoreboard said.”

Big Red got on the board first when senior Cole Bowers, making his return to diamond after playing as a freshman, hit an RBI single to open the scoring. He finished with two hits on the day and reached safely in all four plate appearances.

He then scored when Matt Fabbro laced the first of three Big Red triples to the fence to make it 2-0. Another run scored on an error, then Nicky Lovato had an RBI single to cap the rally.

Two innings later in the bottom of the third, AJ Borsch led things off with a triple and scored on Karson Simmons’ RBI single to make it 5-0. Borsch finished with a three-hit day and Simmons had a pair of hits and a pair of RBIs.

In the bottom of the fifth, senior Nolan Blackburn ripped a lead odd triple then scored on Borsch’s RBI single. A Simmons RBI single then plated Borsch, and Simmons came across on a Chase Beall RBI knock to make it an 8-0 game.

An inning later, Blackburn drove in Bowers with an RBI single and then scored on a wild pitch to enact the run rule.

UP NEXT

Catholic Central: Has its home opener against Bridgeport on Monday and hosts Shadyside Tuesday before a break for Holy Week.

Big Red: Starts its first full week of the season with a trip to Wheeling Park on Monday to start a set of four games in five days.