Westminster rolls by Wave
Westminster Christian's Brandon Siewert wasn't thinking about his 1 for 9 batting slump on Saturday.
Siewert was just trying to have as much fun as he could when he took the plate against St. Edward. And the Warriors' third baseman let the good times roll.
Siewert's walk-off grand slam home run capped off a 15-2 five-inning victory for the Warriors (4-3-1) as he finished 2 for 2 with 4 RBI, 3 runs and a double to complement his home run.
"Our first base coach knew what was coming, so I knew the fastball was coming," Siewert said of Julian Ramirez's pitch, which he took to deep left-center.
"I sat back on it."
The Warriors used 11 hits to score their 15 runs, but were trailing 1-0 going into the bottom of the third.
Using 3 different pitchers, St. Edward (0-4) gave up 8 runs in the third inning. Siewert and Carter Ward each had RBI doubles and Ben Palmer jacked a 2 RBI single up the middle in the inning. Overall, Westminster scored its 8 runs off of 6 hits. Starting pitcher Casey Schuring led the inning off by reaching base on one of the Green Wave's 4 errors in the inning. Ryan Donahue and Tyler Beachler both scored runs off errors.
"We've been hitting the ball pretty well," Westminster coach Jeff Moeller said. "We really work on our approach. We want the kids to be patient, but aggressive at the same time."
St. Edward was aggressive at times but left way too many runners stranded for coach Gene Belmonte's liking. After leadoff batter David Hoebbel scored in the top of the first, Mike Kondrath doubled and Kyle Tourtelott singled and stole a base to give the Green Wave runners at second and third with just one out. The Green Wave finished the inning with the bases loaded and just 1 run to show.
"I think the game got away from us when we had a double, single and walk in the first and we didn't get anything out of it," Belmonte said. "Once we fell behind we tightened up at the plate."
The Green wave had a near identical situation in the fifth.
T.J. Madzy opened the inning with double and Kondrath followed with a walk. Schuring (1-0) retired the next 2 batters, but Jordan Torres slammed an RBI double to score Madzy and cut the Warriors' lead to 9-2.
Steve Berglund took the mound and hit Ramirez with a pitch to juice the bases. Berglund, however, then caught Riley Coleman looking to end the inning with the bases loaded for the second time. St. Edward left 9 runners in base in the game.
Schuring picked up the win for Westminster, going 4¿ innings, allowing 2 runs on 5 hits. Torres (0-1) suffered the loss.
"I was hitting spots," Schuring said. "I wasn't overpowering with my speed."