Baseball: Victory no stretch for Glenbard East's Heyman
Jake Heyman pitched out of the stretch the entire baseball game Wednesday.
But it wasn't because the Glenbard East left-hander was getting knocked around the yard.
Eschewing the windup because of personal preference, Heyman tossed a complete game to lead the Rams to a 4-1 nonconference win over Downers Grove North.
“I feel like I'm in more control,” Heyman said, when asked about pitching exclusively out of the stretch. “Just less movement. I felt good out there today, I was getting ahead and I didn't overthrow.”
Heyman allowed six hits and had a shutout until two outs in the seventh. He struck out five, including the final batter of the game.
“He has done a good job in both of his starts,” Glenbard East coach Joel Pelland said. “He is getting to be more efficient with his pitches. He had a couple of first-pitch outs and that limited his pitch count. Jake worked really hard in the off-season so he deserves all the success he's getting this spring.”
Glenbard East (4-2) staked its pitcher to an early lead. In the first inning Jack Moran reached on a bunt single, stole second and third and scored on a groundout by Joey Moore. The visitors scored twice more in the second inning, one on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Richard Masciopinto, before Mike Sebby hit an opposite field homer in the third.
The Trojans (1-4) put two runners on in the fourth and then loaded the bases in the fifth but came up empty both times. The home team did score a run on a sacrifice fly Brendan Shanahan in the seventh.
James Krick started on the mound and struck out six in five innings. Dalton Baran tossed a pair of scoreless innings in relief.
“Their guy did a good job,” Downers Grove North coach Chad Isaacson said. “Give credit to him, he pounded the zone. Our guys, we are figuring it out on the fly. We saw good pitching and we've seen good pitching this far in the first five games. We are seeing some things we like, we just are not really swinging the bats well. But the potential is there.”