Blake triumphant in opener
Ty Rushmeyer - Lakeshore Weekly News
April 21, 2008
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Hit batters, errors, overthrows, misplays, passed balls and more. Yes, it was opening day.
But Blake (1-0) played damage control in the latter innings and managed to refocus after coughing up a 6-0 lead to hold on for the 9-7 victory over visiting St. Paul Academy (0-1) April 14.
Bears' head coach Steve Johnson said it was a valuable lesson for his team in its opener.
"One of the things we talked about afterwards was that you got to play every out, you got to play every pitch. What appears to be in the second inning may not be that way at the end of the ball game," he said. "So we lost a little focus but we got it back and that's a plus. This is a close-knit team. If one messes up or makes a mistake the others can pick him up."
It appeared Blake would be cruising past the Spartans early on.
After starting pitcher Ben Hughes struck out all three St. Paul Academy batters in the top half of the first, the Bears poured on the runs in the bottom half.
Jim Yablonski and Blake Doerring led things off with back-to-back singles and a double steal to place them at second and third.
Thomas Wheeler grounded out as Yablonski touched home. Jared Falkanger followed it up with a single that drove in Yablonski. Tyler Hoeg hit a grounder to second base that was misplayed to make it 3-0 with runners advancing to second and third on a passed ball.
Hughes then singled and another run scored on a passed ball over the second baseman's head.
Tyler Hoeg also scored on a passed ball to home to make it 5-0 and Austin Hoeg hit a sacrifice fly to make it 6-0 after one inning.
St. Paul Academy responded with two runs in the top of the second as both Terry Schwartz and Jacob Morley scored on passed balls to home to make it 6-2.
Falkanger drove his second run of the game in the bottom of the second inning on a RBI double to push the Bears' advantage to 7-2.
The Spartans had their big inning in the top of the fourth. Gabe Mast started things off by driving in Chris Kradle to make it 7-3.
Mike Falvey followed it up with an RBI single and Mast scored on passed ball to tighten things at 7-5. That was it for Bears' starter Hughes.
Tyler Hoeg replaced him and allowed Terry Schwartz a single that evened things up at 7-7.
But Blake responded in the bottom half of the fourth with a Doerring RBI single and Wheeler sacrifice fly to put the Bears ahead 9-7. Things were scoreless the rest of the way.
Tyler Hoeg, who finished with 3.1 innings pitched allowing no earned runs and striking out four after starting the game in left field, said the game was predictably sloppy after the team spent most of their practices inside a gym.
"We had only been outside once and I haven't had time to pitch off a real mound. So it was nice to pitch to live batters and get back to competitive play," he said. "I know to always be ready as a relief pitcher. Like today I didn't have a chance to warm up before I got in. But I settled in after a few batters."
The Bears return seven starters this season but lost senior second baseman Nick Brunette to a broken leg in the state hockey tournament.
Junior Falkanger is also currently at designated hitter after shoulder surgery no longer allowed him to play third base.
Johnson said despite that this year's team will be strong and it demonstrated some late-inning composure against St. Paul Academy.
"Obviously there's room for improvement. Today we got through it, we got through the nerves, made a few plays and hit the ball well," he said. "We have a lot of experience. Most of these guys have been in every situation you can be in before and they responded when they had to today."
Reprinted with permission LakeShore News
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