Rockets' offense fizzles

After a double and a home run in the first inning, Burlington Central's baseball team was riding high.

McHenry made it a short trip.

Down 3-0 after the first inning, McHenry used its experience to grind out a 6-4 nonconference baseball victory on Rocket Hill Wednesday.

"It was a pretty good feeling," said Central's Jeff Ehlers, who nailed his first home run of the season. "(Then) we made a bunch of mental mistakes and got down on ourselves. It got everyone down."

Central, which had been able to mask some of its defensive deficiencies with a potent offense earlier in the season, was not able to hide within McHenry's offense. The Warriors (10-4), winners of 7 straight, scored 4 of their 6 runs with two outs.

Mike Canevello, Nick Brennan and Colin Hansen all nailed RBI doubles with two outs in the fourth inning to put McHenry ahead 6-4. In all, Central pitcher Dave Hartwell (1-2) allowed 6 runs (5 earned) on 14 hits.

After the Rockets had recorded two outs in the third, Hartwell gave up 3 singles, with Ben Finfrock's scoring Hansen to tie the game at 3.

"I give a lot of credit to them for coming up with two-out hits," Central coach Kyle Nelson said. "That's been one of the things that bit us. Once we get two outs, we kind of relax and think we're going to get out of an inning."

Central's bats all but disappeared after a slugfest in the first inning. Dan Berg walked to get on base and Austin Jarvis smacked a double to deep right field giving the Rockets runners at second and third. Charley Fletcher, running for Jarvis, and Berg made the trip home when Ehlers nailed a shot right over the right-center field wall.

The Rockets would finish the game with 7 hits, but with only 1 extra base hit for the rest of the game. Central did have a brief revival after Ehlers (3-for-3, 3 RBI, 2 runs) singled in the fourth. Bill Rodriguez doubled and Hartwell scored Ehlers with an RBI fielder's choice to bring Central back within 6-4.

Pat Murphy (2-1) picked up the win for McHenry.