Monday, April 20, 2009 12:15 AM CDT
Trojans respond with romp of their own
BY BRIAN NIELSEN/Sports Editor
CHARLESTON – If Charleston baseball players needed any reassurance after a 14-1 loss, coach Derrick Landrus found that in his dugout.
“Nathan Ames was helping me coach,” Landrus said of a former player. “I said this guy lost 13-0 in the first game against Mount Zion and came back and won the second game.”
Maybe that helped or maybe the Trojans provided their own motivation.
“I think we were all kind of ticked off at ourselves,” senior shortstop Derek Hennig said. “We needed to wake up.”
Mount Zion took the brunt of the anger of Hennig, whose three-run homer in the second inning put Charleston ahead. His grand slam in the fifth inning provided the 10-run mercy rule margin for an 11-1 win and split in Saturday’s Apollo Conference doubleheader at the CHS Field.
“I said we have as much chance of winning this next game as they do,” Landrus said of his speech between games. “If we didn’t believe we could have won it, we would have been in trouble. Hopefully, we kept ourselves in the conference race.”
Charleston stands 11-5 overall and 5-3 in the Apollo after the split with Mount Zion, which is 9-6 and 4-4.
Hennig now has three home runs this season – not counting the one hit against Teutopolis in a game then suspended by rain – after Saturday’s power surge that was part of his 5-for-7 doubleheader with seven RBIs in the second game.
“I’m seeing the ball pretty well,” he said. “I’m not much of a power hitter. I’m just trying to hit line drives.”
Landrus said: “That’s what you need from your senior when you need a win. But James (Addison) was the key to the win.”
Addison shut down what had been a hot Mount Zion offense by pitching a five-hitter in the second game when the Braves’ only run was unearned.
“I thought Charleston had good pitching all day,” Mount Zion coach Ben Davis said. “(Taylor) Nead threw well in the first game. He just didn’t get any support.”
While Addison stopped Mount Zion in game two, Charleston teed off on two Braves pitchers.
“In this ballpark you have to keep the ball down,” Davis said. “Fly balls become home runs.”
Charleston had four homers in the second game.
“They would have been out anywhere,” Landrus said, “especially the first one.”
John Pogue led off the third inning with a homer and Cam Phipps hit a one-out solo homer in the fourth.
This was quite a transformation from the first game when Mount Zion’s Jake Jones limited the Trojans to three hits, two of them by Hennig, who scored his team’s only run on a wild pitch.
Four different Braves, led by Dalton Geisler with a three-run homer breaking up the scoreless duel in the third inning, matched Charleston’s team total with three hits in the first game.
Things reversed in game two.
“I think the team just settled down a little bit,” Pogue said. “We were anxious in the first game. We just settled down a little bit.”
Before the Trojans began their home run derby, they tied the game by manufacturing a run in the bottom of the first inning.
Hennig singled to left field, stole second base, took third on Brad Wheeler’s ground out, Addison walked and Pogue hit into a fielder’s choice forcing Addison at second base but beating the throw to first avoiding a double play so that Hennig could score.
“I just tried to get us on the board,” said Pogue, a football lineman. “I was just trying to put it in play. I lost about 30 pounds since football. I think that helped me beat it out.”
Hennig put Charleston ahead in the second inning with his two-out home run after Jason Lord had doubled and Phipps walked.
Eventually, this turned into a Charleston rout after the first game rout by Mount Zion.
“The game of baseball is a strange game sometimes,” Davis said.
Charleston has four more home games scheduled for this week at its high school field that now has enough grass back in the infield for varsity games. The Trojans are to play host to Effingham St. Anthony on Wednesday and Neoga Thursday in 4:30 p.m. non-conference games and then Olney in an 11 a.m. Saturday Apollo doubleheader.
First game
Charleston AB R H BI
Hennig, ss 3 1 2 0
Wheeler, c 3 0 0 0
Addison, 3b 1 0 0 0
Pogue, dh 3 0 0 0
Miller, 2b 0 0 0 0
Clark, 1b 1 0 0 0
Schniers, ph 1 0 0 0
Nead, p 2 0 0 0
Held, ph 1 0 1 0
Lord, lf 2 0 0 0
Pankey, ph 1 0 0 0
Fisher, lf 2 0 0 0
Phipps, cf 2 0 0 0
Totals 22 1 3 0
2B-Hennig. SB-Addison.
Mount Zion 003 031 7 - 14-16-0
Charleston 001 000 0 - 1-3-3
Pitcher IP H R ER BB SO
Nead (2-2) 5 9 6 4 1 4
Phipps 1 1 1 0 1 2
Wheeler 1 6 7 7 3 0
Second game
Charleston AB R H BI
Hennig, ss 4 3 3 7
Wheeler, c 3 0 2 0
Addison, p 2 0 0 0
Pogue, dh 3 1 1 2
Miller, 2b 0 0 0 0
Clark, 1b 3 0 0 0
Nead, 3b 3 1 0 0
Lord, rf 2 2 1 0
Fricke, lf 2 0 1 0
Fisher, pr 1 1 1 1
Phipps, cf 1 3 1 1
Totals 24 11 10 11
2B-Wheeler, Lord. HR-Hennig 2 (3), Pogue (1), Phipps (1). SB-Hennig, Wheeler.
Mount Zion 100 00 - 1-5-1
Charleston 131 15 - 11-10-1
Pitcher IP H R ER BB SO
Addison (5-0) 5 5 1 0 2 3
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