Ledinsky, Conzelman leads Jacobs by Hampshire
The sun did make a cameo appearance during the Hampshire-Jacobs baseball game Saturday, but it didn’t do much to warm the players and the smattering of spectators. It didn’t warm up the bats very much, either.
Jacobs heated up its weapons enough to squeeze out a 4-1 victory against the Whip-Purs in a Fox Valley Conference crossover on another ridiculously cold day in Hampshire.
Jacobs starter Nick Ledinsky shut down the Whip-Purs on 4 hits while striking out 6, and leadoff man Connor Conzelman stroked a pair of doubles and drove in 2 runs for the Golden Eagles (9-1, 2-0).
Jacobs again won without a dominating individual performance on offense.
“There’s no superstars,” said Jacobs coach Jamie Murray. “What makes us strong is playing together, playing well as a team. Some people think we’ve got to blow out teams. We did what we had to do, got the runs when we needed to.”
Hampshire took an early lead when its first batter, Piotr Barnas, reached on an error and eventually scored on an infield out by Michael Laramie, but that was all the Whips could muster against Ledinsky.
“Ledinsky settled down,” said Hampshire coach John Sarna. “He got ahead in the count and was able to use his off-speed stuff to force us into weak ground balls. That’s the name of the game: get ahead and force us to swing at his off-speed stuff.”
The Eagles got Ledinsky all the runs he needed in the second. After walks to Aaron Meciej and Jon Berndt, Matt Hickey beat out a bunt single. Conzelman drove in the tying run with a sacrifice fly to deep right field, and Berndt scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch.
Jacobs added an insurance run in the fourth on doubles by Aaron Traub and Conzelman. The Eagles got their final run in the seventh on doubles by Conzelman and Grant Kale.
Hampshire (3-5, 0-4) threatened in the bottom half of the seventh, getting 2 runners on to bring the tying run to the plate with one out, but Ledinsky worked out of the jam.
Hampshire starter Dan Keller pitched well enough, walking 3 and striking out 3 in 6 innings. Tyler Crater had 2 of the Whips’ 4 hits.
No one went deep despite the wind howling out to right field.