Splitt, Cary-Grove handle Hampshire
Andrew Splitt certainly didn't let the cold, windy, wintry conditions hinder his performance.
The hard-throwing Cary-Grove right hander limited Hampshire to 2 runs while scattering 6 singles as the Trojans opened Fox Valley Conference baseball action with a convincing 10-2 win over Hampshire in Cary Thursday afternoon.
The Cary-Grove senior struck out 5 and walked 2 in 7 innings of work.
"It was cold so I wanted to use my fastball and throw strikes," said Splitt, who will play collegiately at Wisconsin-Platteville. "I tried to stay loose between innings. I have a great defense behind me so I can just relax and throw strikes."
Cary-Grove coach Don Sutherland was impressed with Splitt's performance in tough weather conditions.
"Andrew had 93 pitches after six innings so I thought about taking him out," said the veteran Cary-Grove coach. "I thought he had enough left to pitch the seventh. Andrew is a strong-willed kid who is such a competitor. He muscled up on his fastball when he needed to to get a strikeout."
Cary-Grove (3-3, 1-0), which benefited from 10 walks off three Hampshire (2-2, 0-1) pitchers, scored 2 unearned runs in the first inning and 3 in the third courtesy of an RBI double by Dean Christakes, an infield groundout RBI by Willie Hartke and a sacrifice fly by Wyatt Mascarella.
Down 5-0 heading into the bottom of third, the Whip-Purs scored on a 2-run single by RJ Consigny. Those were the only runs the Whip-Purs would score as Splitt blanked the visitors during the last four innings on 4 singles.
Cary-Grove seized control of the game with 5 runs in the fifth. Taking advantage of 4 walks and 2 hit batsmen, 11 Trojans came to the plate.
Matt Sutherland and Hartke collected RBI singles as the Trojans led 10-2 after five innings of play.
Sutherland and Larkin Hanselmann had 2 hits apiece for the winners. Dillon Kuhn paced Hampshire with 2 hits.
"Our pitchers gave up way too many walks and it seemed like they were behind every hitter," said Hampshire coach John Sarna. "We didn't execute on defense and gave them too many outs. I was impressed with our hitting. That was a bright spot. We swung the bats very well and weren't intimidated by Splitt."