Geneva jumps all over Marmion, rolls to 12-3 win
You wouldn't think a coach would want his team to make his job any tougher, only that's just what Geneva baseball coach Matt Hahn demanded.
And his Vikings are doing just that.
Coming into the season with a senior-dominated group, it would have been easy for Hahn to run the same lineup out each game. But Hahn was looking for his junior class to push the seniors for playing time, and that's just what is happening.
Junior Brad Bernhard belted a home run in his first varsity start, part of a 3-hit game for the first baseman in a 12-3 win over Marmion Tuesday in Geneva.
Junior Chris Hipchen also hit his first career home run, a 2-run shot in the first inning that gave Geneva the lead for good.
Of course, Geneva's stellar seniors still showed their stuff. Riley Perry threw his 12th straight varsity complete game, Alex Sroka homered, and second baseman Brian Cornick delivered 3 hits, 2 stolen bases, 2 RBI and 2 runs.
"The juniors have had success all along too," Hahn said. "They have had success as freshman, they have had success as sophomores. They want to play. We have all been there. You don't want to sit on the bench. Both juniors and seniors, a lot of guys are making claims for playing time.
"I told them at the start of the year, that's your No. 1 goal is to make my job hard. Make me find a way to put you in the lineup every day. And we have several guys who are doing that right now."
Geneva (3-1) jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first inning thanks to Hipchen and Bernhard's back-to-back home runs off Mark Peters.
"I felt the guys ahead of me did a great job working the pitcher," said Bernhard, who drove a fastball on the outside corner over the fence in right center. "He was kind of rattled when I got up. I really was just looing for something to hit with two strikes."
Perry and his defense took turns picking each other up early in the game.
About the only inning Marmion hit Perry hard was the first. Joe Wulff opened the game with a double only to be gunned down trying to stretch it to a triple on a perfect relay from Hipchen to Cornick to Sroka.
The next batter Chris Tydd singled sharply, then was thrown out stealing by catcher Eric Renner.
Perry had his turn to help out his defense in the second inning when two errors put runners on second and third with nobody out. Perry promptly struck out the next three batters.
Geneva's defense again struggled in the third, committing three errors that led to a pair of unearned runs.
But both Perry and his defense kept their cool, and over the final four innings the Cadets managed just 1 run on 1 hit while Geneva played error-free.
"Last year maybe we crumble a little because they were all juniors," Hahn said of the error-filled start. "That's a testament to all the seniors we have on the field. Riley has been in that situation before. He's calm. I went out there after we made the second error in a row to tell them to relax and he was almost like, 'Why are you even out here? I got it, it's OK.' He stays so calm about everything."
Perry finished with 9 strikeouts and 1 walk.
"My defense was behind me," Perry said. "You just have to get used to trust them even if you get in jams. My arm didn't get tired at all. It's nice to come into the season like that (with back-to-back complete game wins)."
Peters lasted 3 2/3 innings for Marmion (1-4). Ryan Lifka scored 2 of Marmion's 3 runs. Tim Tarter had 2 RBI.
"You play against a bad team and you are waiting for something to happen and they are going to beat you," Marmion coach Dave Rakow said. "You get a team like Geneva and they are going to jump all over you. That's what they did. They played a good game tonight and I don't think we did."