Baseball: Conant duo does its job in nonconference win over Wheeling

Conant’s pitching plan bore a lot of fruit Friday in Hoffman Estates.

Mason Hopkins and Joseph Garza were to split the pitching duties in the Cougars’ nonconference crossover game with Wheeling. Hopkins and Garza combined for six scoreless innings to help Conant harvest a 9-2 win over the Wildcats.

“It was a good win,” Conant coach Derek Fivelson said. “We got great pitching, I thought, from both those guys. Our plan was to send Hopkins out to start and basically be at a count where’s he available again out if the bullpen on Monday. Joe (Garza) pitched really well coming out of the pen and filling up the rest of the game.”

Hopkins pitched the first three-plus innings for Conant (14-7). The senior allowed just three hits and threw just 58 pitches before giving way to Garza.

“I was just trying to throw as many strikes as possible,” said Hopkins, who because he threw under 60 pitches, is available to pitch in relief Monday.

“I was trying to get ahead on the counts. Right now, my arm feels pretty great. I think I could have gone more, but again, I have to pitch again next week. So I am good.”

Garza, who is a junior, kept Wheeling at bay for the next three innings. The Wildcats did touch him up for a pair of runs in the top of the seventh, but at that time Conant had a 9-0 lead.

“The plan was to just give my team a chance to win,” said Garza, who threw 50 pitches and will also be available if needed Monday.

“And I did that. Everybody did their job today.”

Conant took a 2-0 lead thanks to a pair of RBI by Jacob Szpiganowicz. The senior singled to drive home Andrew Lipka, who had reached on an error in the third. Szpiganowicz would later score Andrew Miller, who doubled in the fifth, on a fielder’s choice to make it 2-0.

The Cougars broke the game wide open by scoring seven runs in the sixth.

Arjun Patel led off by beating out a bunt and Lucas Olson was hit by a pitch. Garza followed with an RBI double. A balk sent Olson home to make it 4-0.

After a walk, Lipka singled home Garza. Miller then followed with a towering three-run home to right to make it 8-0.

“I was off to a rough start on my first two at-bats,” said Miller, who has three home runs on the season.

“I just couldn’t find the barrel. But I knew I’m able to do it. I just started turning quick and getting around on the ball, which actually helped.”

Max Tutt singled and stole second he scored on Alex Martinez’ single to make it 9-0.

Wheeling (9-7), which has a big series with Rolling Meadows next week, finally broke through in the top of the seventh.

Owen Zalewski reached on fielder’s choice and went to third on Evan Watanuki’s long double. Zalewski scored on a dropped third strike and Watanuki would later score on an infield error.

“It was well pitched by both teams,” Wheeling coach Jason Wieder said. “Our guy, Luke Papaioannou, did an awesome job. He grinded some big innings for us and got out of some jams early. Then, unfortunately, a couple mistakes by us snowballed.”