Marmion bounces back, beats Aurora Christian
Marmion baseball coach Dave Rakow offered two words to his players before they took the field against Aurora Christian Tuesday afternoon.
"Play loose," said Rakow, whose team entered the game having dropped 8 of its first 11 games.
After spotting the Eagles (3-3, 1-1) a pair of runs in the top of the third inning, the Cadets (4-8, 1-1) were in a position where things could have become anything but loose.
However, they held it together, answering with a 3-spot in their half of the third and rode the right arm of senior pitcher Garrett Hiler the rest of the way during their 6-2 Suburban Christian Conference victory at John Stuart Sports Complex in Aurora.
"We haven't been playing real good baseball lately," admitted Rakow, whose team graduated several big-time players from last year's conference championship squad, including current Michigan State freshman Alex Troop.
"We have really struggled swinging the bat. We're a young team so we kind of expected it but we've struggled a little more than we expected this year. We plugged some new guys into the lineup today and two of them got hits."
Rakow has noticed some tension at the plate throughout the first few weeks of the season.
"We've been hitting a lot of balls foul to the right side so as coaches we feel guys are just tight in the zone and not finishing their swings," said the coach. "We thought we'd encourage them to play loose and hopefully it helped a little bit."
Aurora Christian grabbed a 2-0 lead on an RBI grounder off the bat of Drew Wagner and a run-producing single by Dustin Barrett.
The Cadets capitalized on a pair of Aurora Christian errors during their 3-run third.
Nick Salazar (1-for-2, 2 walks) led off with Marmion's first base hit of the contest and raced to second when the Eagles' right fielder bobbled the ball. Salazar took third on a groundout and scored when Edgar Sanchez reached on an infield error.
Sanchez stole second, took third on a groundout and scored the tying run on a wild pitch. Thomas Boland delivered a 2-out RBI single to give the Cadets a 3-2 lead.
"We've been preaching to put it in play on the ground," said Rakow. "Sometimes you get lucky on an error."
Hiler did the rest, throwing 4 consecutive scoreless innings to record his second complete game of the season.
The right-hander walked 3, fanned 4 and worked his way out of a bases-loaded, 1-out jam in the seventh. He picked up an assist on the game's final out when designated hitter R.D. Lutze smashed a 1-hopper back to the mound.
The ball caromed off Hiler's right calf and bounced in the direction of shortstop Sanchez, who flipped the ball to second baseman Jon Young to end it.
"I'm just trying to get outs any way I can," said Hiler, who started a nifty second-inning double play with a diving stab of a sacrifice bunt attempt.
"He has pitched well for us all year," Rakow said of Hiler. "He went out there and made a play for the team at a time when we were struggling. He picked us up when we needed it."
Wagner suffered the loss for the Eagles, who stranded 9 runners, walked 7 batters and committed 5 errors.
"It was a completely different team from yesterday when we made all of the plays and had a good offensive approach," said Eagles coach Andy Zorger, whose team won 6-0 Monday. "Today, we made errors, we left guys on base and we didn't execute.
"It's kind of frustrating because I don't know what the difference was."