H.S. Baseball: Elyria’s streak hits 10 after doubleheader sweep
Tim Gebhardt | The Chronicle-Telegram
ELYRIA — When you turn four double plays and get decent pitching and timely hitting, you usually win.
Those ingredients were enough to make it 10 straight victories for Elyria High’s baseball team following a sweep of North Olmsted, 4-2 and 12-2, Saturday at George Day Field.
“Kids are playing great ball,” said Elyria coach Steve Sunagel. “They’re absolutely doing the things we asked them to do earlier in the year but maybe didn’t quite believe yet. Now they believe they can go out there and do anything. I’m riding high, too. This is great, it’s excellent.”
The streak gives Elyria a 13-7 mark after starting the year 0-3.
The Pioneers did it with great defense — turning three double plays the first game and one more the second — and clutch hitting. Jon Koepf’s fifth-inning triple to the gap in right-center got Elyria rolling in the first game while Seth Harshberger’s three-run homer propelled the Pioneers in the second.
On the mound, senior Brenton Brada consistently got ahead of the hitters in the first game, but it was the defense that sparked his second win in four decisions.
“The defense really set it up with the double plays,” said Brada. “That was huge. (North Olmsted) had a lot of one-out hits. Just to get those back really helped me out.”
Elyria scratched a run across in the first inning of game one thanks to an error. In fact, three of Elyria’s runs were unearned and erased a two-run home run by North Olmsted’s Matt Konyesni that put the Eagles up 2-1 in the fourth inning.
“We gave up unearned runs,” said North Olmsted coach Tim Murphy. “It’s kind of indicative of our season. I thought we swung the bats pretty good and (Brada) pitched a pretty good game against us. Our guy (Kyle Drake) threw a great game, but we have not picked the ball up. We have not defended well.”
North Olmsted fell to 8-14.
In the second game, Elyria took control with three runs in the second and four more in the third inning. Harshberger’s three-run homer in the fourth put the Pioneers up 10-2. Nolan Neuschaefer had two hits and three runs batted in. Koepf added three hits while Brada had a pair.
“It was a high, inside fastball,” said Harshberger of his home run. “I turned on it.”
North Olmsted’s only runs came in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Don Kitko and a sacrifice fly by Tim Barack. Elyria’s three pitchers — Stephen Howard, Brandon Grunda and Tyler Robinson — combined on a three-hitter.
Elyria put the game away by mercy rule on hits by Neuschaefer and Koepf, two Eagle errors and Dominic Mowery’s sacrifice fly.
“We told these kids from day one they were better than what was happening,” Sunagel said. “It was just that they had to believe. I think they have now.”
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Filed by Tim Gebhardt | The Chronicle-Telegram May 11th, 2008 in Sports. Popularity: 1% |
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