Bringing the heat: Ethan Firoved dazzles in second start with Y-D, giving up no runs on the bump

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As the sky turned dark gray and the rain came down on Guv Fuller Field in Falmouth, Ethan Firoved stood tall and executed an impressive start for the Y-D Red Sox on the mound. The first five innings were scoreless for Falmouth as Firoved fired strike after strike — not allowing a Commodore to cross the plate while he was on the mound.

The left-handed pitcher started his collegiate career in JUCO playing for Tallahassee State College. He went 10-3 with 13 starts on the mound and had a total of 96 strikeouts on the season. In addition to putting up these numbers, he also won multiple awards including Panhandle Conference Pitcher of the Year and was named to First Team All-State.

Firoved collected eight strikeouts in Monday’s game across five innings, just two shy of his single-game career high of 10, which he notched at Tallahassee. His ERA also improved to 2.00 from 4.50 after Monday’s game. He said that despite the loss, he was happy with his starting performance on the bump, adding that his goal was to set the team up for success.

“I wanted to put up as many zeros as I could and give my team an opportunity to win,” Firoved said. “Threw a lot of fastball cutters today, trying to command the zone and stay in it. And I’m also just trying to have fun with it, it's pretty loose out here.”

After his season in Tallahassee, Firoved moved over to Pitt where he completed two seasons with the Panthers. The junior had the most strikeouts out of any other Panther this past season with a total of 58 and picked up his first career save back in February with four scoreless innings against Texas A&M Corpus Christi.

Throwing scoreless innings is nothing new to Firoved. In both his seasons with Pitt, he threw a multitude of zero-run innings, including games against ranked West Virginia and Miami.

“It’s just special being able to come out here and compete against the best of the best. So have fun and compete. Kind of roll with that.”

Catching for Firoved on Monday was Talmadge LeCroy, the utility player out of South Carolina. LeCroy has been making an impact both behind the plate and at the plate for Y-D, hitting over .500 this season and coming up with multiple blocks catching. He said he has been looking to do damage in the batter’s box coming into the Cape League and has found great success since his debut.

As a main catcher in the rotation for Y-D, LeCroy has caught for many different pitchers out of the bullpen, but there is still a handful he has never paired up with in a game. On Monday, Firoved and LeCroy joined forces for the first time — their performances preventing Falmouth from crossing the plate early in the game.

“Catching for a different pitcher for the first time can be unpredictable, but Ethan did a great job,” LeCroy said. “He had all of his pitches going for him out there tonight.”

Photo by Sophie Solarino