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Hawks Get Caught In Fence, Then Soar Again In Game Two |
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Written by Steve DeDoes for Toledo Hawks Baseball
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Tuesday, 28 June 2011 08:43 |
Doubleheader Split Leaves Gold at 13-3
The Shannon Fence team from Eastlake, Ohio came to Sylvania on June 26 with hopes of building a cage for the Toledo "Gold" Hawks. In the first game of a Sunday doubleheader, they did just that--foiling a Hawk comeback bid with four 7th-inning runs to drop the Hawks 8-4. In the second game, however, the Hawks broke open a close contest with a six-run fifth to fly away to a 11-2 victory and earn a split of the doubleheader between the two teams.
In the opening contest, Shannon posted three scores in the 4th against Hawk starter Ricky Volante (Lake Erie/Tappahannock, VA) to construct a 4-2 lead. Volante ended up pitching 5 total innings, escaping trouble in the fifth when he induced a 6-4-3 double play to escape further damage. For the game, Volante allowed five hits, walked two, and hit a batter.
The Hawks had scored a run in both the second and third innings. In the 2nd, a one-out walk to Ryan Williams (Tiffin/Maumee) resulted in a tally when Colin Meinzer (Wooster/Toledo) brought Williams home with a sharp, two-out single. In the 3rd, Cory Lehman (Siena Heights/Rossford) walked, stole second, and scored on Brett Howard's (Siena Heights/Toledo) two-out double.
It looked like the Hawks might swoop to a come-from-behind win, as they pecked away to manufacture a run in both the fifth and sixth. In the bottom of the fifth, Siena Heights' Mike Lollo (Allen Park, MI) walked and stole second; he scored on Howard's second two-out RBI of the game, this time punching a single to left. In the sixth, Williams led off with a walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and then was moved nicely to third on Mattie DeDoes' (Oberlin/Ann Arbor, MI) right-side groundout; after a second out was recorded, Oberlin teammate Steve DiNanno (Northbrook, IL) was able to bring Williams home when his grounder to short was booted.
The tie game was short-lived, however, as Tyler Gibson (Bluffton/Sylvania) - who had pitched a 1-2-3 sixth - ran into trouble in the seventh. Two leadoff walks and a hit batter led to a 2-run single; Jimmie Shaw (Lake Erie/Holland) came on in relief of Gibson, but couldn't nail down the Fence until two more runs had crossed the plate.
With three hits and two RBI, Howard spearheaded the Hawk offense; Lehman also had two hits.
In the second game, the Hawks jumped out to a 4-0 advantage after only one inning. Lehman, Blake Schmenk (Owens CC/Perrysburg), Howard, and Eric Croak (Toledo/Toledo) singled to start the bottom of the first; Howard's and Croak's hits produced runs, with Schmenk scoring on a passed ball in between. A fourth run plated on Williams' subsequent base hit.
From there, Kirk Stambaugh (Wayne State/Sylvania) kept the Fence at arm's length, tossing five innings of three-hit baseball. Back-to-back Shannon hits in the third resulted in an unearned run on a Hawk throwing error; Stambaugh struck out five and walked one in his victory stint. The final two innings were covered by fellow Sylvania resident Brian Koehl (Heidelberg), who allowed a harmless 7th-inning score on three hits, after striking out two in the sixth.
By that time, the Hawks were on their way to a high-flying win. Adding one more in the fourth inning, then capitalizing on a "walk-fest" in the fifth, the home team cruised to the eventual 11-2 triumph. Lehman scored the lone 4th-inning run when, after singling and stealing 2nd, he eventually scored on a throwing error after Howard's infield single. The fifth started with a single by R.J. Rios (Adrian/Toledo), a pair of walks and a double play; however, Levi Pauli (Defiance/Ottawa Lake, MI) smacked a hard grounder that was misplayed; after two more walks and an error, DeDoes singled home another run in a frame where the visitors could not post the third out to escape.
The Gold Hawks' Tri-State record sits at 13-3 after a 3-1 weekend; the team is 17-3 overall.
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