Marmion stays ahead of St. Francis
After rallying for 8 runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to edge Guerin 12-11 Saturday afternoon, Marmion’s baseball team used a tried and true formula during Monday’s 7-1 victory over St. Francis at Joe Nardone Field in Aurora.
The Cadets (12-5, 8-2) scored a pair of unearned runs in the first inning and added another in the second in support of starting pitcher Tyler Friel (3-2).
That proved to be more than enough support for the right-hander, who tossed a 3-hit complete game with 5 strikeouts.
“This is probably one of my better ones,” Friel said of his 91-pitch outing. “Everything seemed to be working today.”
“Tyler’s definitely the MVP for us today,” Marmion coach Dave Rakow said of Friel, who relied on a fastball, curveball, change-up and forkball to keep the Spartans (15-6, 7-3) off balance. “He gets stronger as the game goes along. The seventh inning was probably his best-pitched inning.”
After Andy Young reached on a 1-out error, Kyle Kozak drove him in with an RBI triple to right field. Another infield error on a grounder off the bat of Tim Tarter accounted for the Cadets’ second run of the inning.
“We started real slow Saturday against Guerin,” said Rakow. “We had a long talk about coming in here and being mentally ready to play. They were in it the entire time today. It was huge to put those two runs up in the first inning.”
St. Francis scored its only run in the fifth as Colin Wons walked and Lonnie Hicks doubled before a balk call sent Wons across the plate.
On the next pitch, the Spartans bunted into an inning-ending double play on a botched suicide attempt.
“We consider ourselves an execution-type offense and we didn’t execute a squeeze play,” said Spartans coach Rich Janor. “We didn’t execute a hit-and-run. Those are things that need to be executed and then it might have been a different game.
“The pitch was a strike (on the squeeze). We need to execute that play like we’ve done all year long.”
Kozak’s fifth-inning RBI single made it 4-1 before the Cadets added 3 more insurance runs in the sixth, capped by a 2-run double by Jordan Meyer (2-for-2, 2 RBI).
Mike Pipp (1-for-2, double, sacrifice bunt) and Meyer provided plenty of offensive support from the bottom of the Cadets’ lineup.
“That’s the good thing about our order,” said Rakow. “We’ve got a couple really good hitters in the middle but we really don’t have a weak spot.”
The game also included its share of strange plays — Friel was called out for not touching first base after an apparent double in the fourth, along with the fifth-inning balk.
But the wildest play was reserved for the third inning when the Spartans’ Eric Stout hit a 1-hopper back to Friel, who fielded it but couldn’t get the ball out of the webbing of his glove, so he took off the glove — ball and all — and delivered an underhand toss to first baseman Tim Tarter.
“I can’t run over because the guy’s going to be safe so I threw the mitt,” said Friel. “I knew the kid who hit it, too, so it was a good laugh.”
The base umpire ruled against Friel, calling Stout safe on the play.
“He said if you detach your equipment you can’t throw the ball,” said Rakow. “It doesn’t really give you an advantage so I don’t know why it would be illegal. I’ve seen it on Major League highlights. He said he would email me the rule.”
The series concludes today in Wheaton.
“Now we’re playing for a split,” said Janor.