Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Boardman’s Alex Ward puts a ball in play during the Spartans’ victory over Howland on Thursday. Ward went 3-for-4 with two RBIs at the plate.

BOARDMAN — A fast start helped Boardman put away Howland on Monday night, so the Spartans duplicated the feat on Thursday to complete the season sweep of the Tigers.

After jumping on Howland with two early runs in the first inning, Boardman pulled away from the Tigers the rest of the way in a comfortable 9-3 victory on Thursday.

“I tell them, you get off to quick starts, the pitcher can relax and the defense can play loose,” Boardman head coach Fred Mootz said. “You make a mistake or two, you’ve still got a three or four-run lead. It just allows everybody to play much looser and obviously create separation the more runs you can add on. Especially with our pitching, I tell them the magic number is four runs. You put up four runs, generally we’re going to win games.”

In that first inning, Tori Strines led off by getting on base thanks to a walk, then Ava Freeborough’s base hit advanced Strines into scoring position.

With two runners on, Alex Ward capitalized with a two-run single to give the Spartans the early advantage. Ward finished 3-for-4 at the plate with the two RBIs to lead Boardman.

“Alex, another senior and another girl with a ton of experience,” Mootz said. “She started out a little rough at the plate this year, but she has really picked it up the last couple games. Plus, she’s unbelievable at third base.”

Things got dicey for Boardman at the top of the inning, as Howland was able to load the bases with two outs after a leadoff hit by Madison Schmitz and a pair of walks. But Gabi Sferra managed to get the Spartans out of the jam with a strikeout to end the inning.

The inability to capitalize on runners in scoring position proved to be the Tigers’ undoing, as Howland left seven runners on base over the first four innings, including four in scoring position.

“I tell them all the time, you can’t win games if you don’t score runs,” Howland head coach Nicole Wayt said. “With every team in our conference right now, you need to put up probably 10 runs to win a game. As you can see by the last couple games, that’s basically what teams are doing.

“You have to go out there, you have to find a way to get on and you have to trust yourself. We’re getting there. I told the girls, I’m not upset about what we did tonight. I liked their effort today,” Wayt said. “I thought we played better today than we did the other night. We just have to follow through. We have to execute when we can, but we’re getting there.”

Boardman added a run in the second inning and two more runs in the fourth inning thanks to RBIs from Strines and Laci Jurus. Meanwhile, Howland got on the board with an RBI groundout from Calleigh Luman in the third inning.

But the Spartans put the game away with four runs in the fifth inning that could have been more had it not been for a bases-loaded flyout to centerfield with two outs that limited the damage for Howland.

In the fifth, Boardman took advantage of four walks by Howland pitcher Maya Kubancsek, scoring two runs off a hit by Kenzie Cherne and a bases-loaded walk.

“I always use ‘pass the bat’ mentality — don’t try to do too much and just put balls in play. When you put balls in play, good things happen,” Mootz said. “We are an extremely patient team, probably the most patient team I’ve ever coached on the offensive end. So they draw a ton of walks and they see the ball well.”

After Sferra pitched the first three innings, Strines came in and shut down Howland’s lineup for three innings until the Tigers scratched out a pair of late runs in the seventh off RBIs from Mary Moy and Brooke Tatar.

“This umpire was pretty consistent — they had to go in there and they had to look at something that they could swing at,” Wayt said. “We preach to them all the time about not looking and going in there and looking at strikes that are going to be over the plate. But they have to go in there and look for strikes that aren’t going to be over the plate. Those are what we have to swing at because that’s what a good pitcher does, she throws strikes that aren’t over the plate.”

Next up, Boardman (12-2) travels to face Champion on Saturday at 11 a.m., while Howland (7-6) has almost a week off until it travels to Alliance on April 23 at 5 p.m.