Conant’s hit parade quiets Bartlett

In its season opener, Conant recorded 5 hits.

The Cougars smacked the ball around for 5 hits during their 7-run fourth inning against two different Bartlett pitchers Thursday.

Conant (2-0) finished the game with 12 hits, including 6 extra-base hits in a 12-2 six-inning nonconference win at Bartlett.

First baseman Nick Blaha jacked a 3-run double to dead center field to highlight the Cougars’ fourth inning. His bases-clearing double scored Steve Bola, who was running for catcher Zach Losch, shortstop Kyle Gizynski and Kerry Hickerson.

Gizynski had an RBI single to score Joe Muska.

The senior had a hard hit 1-out double to energize the Cougars’ 3-run sixth inning. Hickerson followed a batter later with a home run that easily cleared the right-center field wall to cushion Conant’s lead at 11-2.

“Going into the season, we all saw what the younger guys could do, what we all could do,” Blaha said. “We wanted to see how it would transition from being inside to being outside. We came out swinging.”

Bartlett (1-3) battled back and forth with Conant early in the game. The Hawks got on the board first when starting pitcher Dan Gallanis singled in Nick Garcia. Garcia was running for catcher Ryan Roszkowiak, who reached base on a nicely hit double. In a nearly identically looking situation, leadoff batter Robert Smith doubled to open the home half of the third inning.

Ben Grear hit a long single down the left-field line to score Smith tying the game at 2-2. But the Hawks’ offense stalled there. After Conant put up its 7 runs, Bartlett only got 1 hit the rest of the game. Cougars’ starter Dan Durr closed out the third and then Kevin Schimel allowed just 1 hit in his 3 innings.

“Dan Gallanis got us going,” Hawks’ coach Chris Pemberton said. “Conant continued hitting the ball well. Once some things didn’t go our way, we continued to go downhill.”

Gallanis (0-2) suffered the loss for Bartlett, going 3 innings, surrendering 7 earned runs off 6 hits. Justin Blanchett came in and allowed 5 earned runs off 6 hits.

Of the Cougars’ 6 extra-base hits, 4 went to right-center field, including both in the sixth inning.

“The guys were really hitting the ball,” Cougars’ coach Jerry Song said. “We’ve been working a lot on hitting. These guys really want to do well.”