Tuesday, May 1, 2007 8:45 PM CDT
Trojans eventually solve Sullivan southpaw
BY BRIAN NIELSEN, Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — Making his first varsity pitching start, Sullivan’s Mitchell Hemrich was in a way facing all Charleston rookies.
“He was a sophomore, but he was a lefty, and we haven’t seen many lefties this year,” Charleston senior Cody Mason said. “This may have been the first time since last year.”
Mason’s memory apparently wasn’t lacking.
“Believe it or not it’s the first lefty we’ve seen this year in 21 games,” Charleston baseball coach Derrick Landrus said. “I didn’t say anything to the team before the game, but I could have told you it would have taken three or four innings for us.”
Sure enough, Hemrich baffled the Trojans with curveballs, took a no-hitter into the fourth inning and was in a tie ballgame in the fifth.
Then after striking out in his previous at-bat, Mason unloaded his fourth home run of the season putting Charleston ahead on its way to Monday’s 7-4 non-conference win at the CHS Field.
Before Charleston raised its record to 15-6 on Wade Eveland’s complete-game pitching performance, it had to slow down the momentum of a Sullivan team that is now 7-11 but brought to town the momentum of Saturday’s Moultrie County tournament championship.
With Dru Daily and Kalen Whitney starting the games with base hits, Hemrich driving in the first run on a ground ball misplayed for an error and Corben White following with a sacrifice fly, the Redskins had a 2-0 lead.
The Class A visitors looking to upset the bigger school had the chance to add to their lead but left two runners on base in the top of the second, which ended with Clay Winskill forced to leave the game after injuring an ankle trying to advance to third on a dropped third strike.
“We just couldn’t get that key hit,” Sullivan coach Troy Rogers said. “It hurt when we lost Clay Winskill. He had a two-run homer to help us win the tournament Saturday.”
Still, Hemrich, pitching from the stretch from the start of the game with no base runners, was escaping trouble blanking Charleston despite four walks in the first three hitless innings.
“It’s not something he does all the time,” Rogers said of his pitcher going without a windup. “I’ll have to ask him about it. I didn’t know he was going to do that.”
Charleston needed its own sophomore in his first varsity start to break up Sullivan’s sophomore’s no-hitter and shutout as Jamel Johnson bounced a run-scoring single into right field after Daniel Bennett led off the Trojans’ fourth with a walk and got into scoring position on a wild pitch.
Two outs later Eveland tied the game with a single up the middle.
It was 2-2 in the fifth before Charleston’s Matt Miller drew his third straight walk bringing up Mason, who had walked in the first and struck out in the third.
“The time before he threw me a couple of curveballs,” Mason said. “He just threw it right down the middle.”
Mason belted this fastball over the right-center field fence.
“I think (Hemrich) got it up a little bit,” Rogers said. “If he had it back he’d probably throw a breaking ball.”
Landrus said of Mason, who now leads Charleston with 23 RBIs: “He’s hit so well this year you expect it every time although that’s not possible. You give him enough chances and he’s going to get you.”
Derek Hennig added a two-run single after hits by Trey Ryan and Clayton Murphy in Charleston’s five-run fifth to make it 7-2.
Sullivan managed two more runs in the top of the seventh when Daily doubled, Whitney singled and another run scored on an error but then the catcher Mason threw out a runner trying to steal second to finish the win by Eveland, who struck out six and walked one while allowing two earned runs on seven hits.
“I thought Wade was really good,” Landrus said. “He hasn’t had that many opportunities on the mound in his career but he’s had two pretty good games now.”
Both teams are to play again today. Sullivan has an Okaw Valley Conference game at Central A&M while Charleston is to play host to Marshall in a 4:15 p.m. non-conference makeup contest.
Sullivan AB R H BI
Daily, rf 4 2 2 0
Whitney, 3b 4 2 2 1
Frerichs, ss 4 0 0 0
Hemrich, p 4 0 1 1
White, lf 2 0 1 1
Weaver, cf 3 0 0 0
Winskill, dh 1 0 1 0
Davis, c 1 0 0 0
Wheeler, dh 1 0 0 0
Marrs, p 3 0 0 0
Fisher, 2b 3 0 0 0
Totals 30 4 7 3
2B-Daily. SB-Daily, Whitney. SF-White.
Charleston AB R H BI
Eveland, p 4 0 1 1
Gentry, 2b 3 0 0 0
Phipps, ph 1 0 0 0
Miller, ss 1 1 1 0
Mason, c 3 1 1 2
Bennett, 1b 2 1 0 0
Johnson, dh 2 1 1 1
Singer, lf 0 0 0 0
Ryan, rf 3 1 1 0
Murphy, cf 3 1 1 0
Hennig, 3b 2 1 1 2
Totals 24 7 7 6
2B-Hennig. HR-Mason (2). SB-Hennig.
Sullivan 200 000 2 - 4-7-1
Charleston 000 250 x - 7-7-3
Pitchers IP H R ER BB SO
Sullivan
Hemrich (0-1) 5 6 7 7 5 8
Marrs 1 1 0 0 0 0
Charleston
Eveland (2-0) 7 7 4 2 1 6
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
Add your comments
Not already registered?
Then click Here.
Comment policy:
JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.
In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.
We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.
No comment may contain:
* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.
If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.
|
|
CLICK TO ENLARGE
|
