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Hawks Gold Polishes Off Solid Weekend |
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Written by Steve DeDoes for Toledo Hawks Baseball
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Monday, 06 June 2011 17:54 |
Second Tri-State Sweep Begins Season
Toledo Hawks "Gold" made their opening weekend a 4-0 success by following their Saturday wins with a two-game sweep of the Shannon Fence team in Eastlake, Ohio. An early four-run outburst in each game allowed the Hawks to take wing and fly to wins by a score of 5-2 in the opener, and hold on for a 6-5 triumph in the second game.
Game 1 featured the starting pitching of Zack Esposito (Owens CC/Sandusky). Esposito pinned the opposition "to the fence" with four shutout innings before yielding a single run in the fifth. Meanwhile, Hawk bats were silent through the first three innings as they went 9 up, 9 down; however, they came alive in the fourth. Four consecutive singles--by Cory Lehman (Siena Heights/ Toledo), Blake Schmenk (Owens CC/Perrysburg), R.J. Rios (Adrian/Toledo) and Brett Howard (Siena Heights/Toledo)--opened the inning, Lehman plating on Rios' hit; after a force out at home, right fielder Ryan Williams (Tiffin/Maumee) brough home Rios and Howard. After a walk to Eric Yunker (Ohio Northern/Holland) loaded the bases, Levi Pauli (Defiance/Ottawa Lake, MI) worked an RBI walk to make the score 4-0, Hawks.
Closer Tyler Gibson (Bluffton/Sylvania) gave up a long home run in the sixth, but yielded no more to save the victory for Esposito. Hawk fans got to cheer one more tally in the seventh, when Lehman and Schmenk again led off the inning with base hits; Lehman scored (after a passed ball) when Rios' ground ball was misplayed--giving Rios his 2nd RBI. With 3 hits (including a double), Schmenk led the nine-hit Hawk offense, with Lehman also responsible for two safeties.
The Hawks experienced their first nail-biter of the young season in Game 2, though the top of the first appeared to be the start of another Hawk hitfest. A four-run first saw a run-scoring double by Howard, an RBI grounder by 2nd-game catcher Steve DiNanno (Oberlin/Northbrook, IL), an RBI single by Williams, an opposite-field, two-out single by third baseman Mattie DeDoes (Oberlin/Ann Arbor, MI), and an RBI walk by Mike Lollo (Siena Heights/Allen Park, MI). The lead held up--but just barely--when the Fencers answered with three runs in the bottom of the first.
Starting Hawk pitcher Andy Joseph (Owens CC/Sylvania) worked gamely through three total innings, however, before yielding to the bullpen with the score tied 4-4; Shannon Fence nailed down another run in the second, but Joseph set them down 1-2-3 in the third inning. In the top of the fourth, Lollo's leadoff single was followed by a beautiful bunt single by Lehman, and then by Schmenk's first of two hits for the game. Schmenk, Lehman (2 hits), and Yunker (with a double also to his credit) helped lead the 11-hit Hawk attack.
Starting the fourth, with a 6-4 lead, Colin Meinzer (Wooster/Toledo) pitched two scoreless innings--but he was helped by the Hawk defense when DeDoes, with two on and one out, snared a line drive and turned it into an inning-ending unassisted double play. Hawk fielders were errorless in this contest, and shortstop Lehman, first baseman Rios, and DeDoes on another play all ended scoring threats put up by the hosts.
Jimmie Shaw (Lake Erie/Holland) came on to close; after being touched for a run in the sixth to make things more interesting, he sailed through a quick seventh to give teammate Meinzer the pitching win, and to keep the Gold Hawks (4-0 in the Tri-State League) undefeated.
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