Eagles cruise to win, but lose ace Garnett
The Indian Creek baseball team has yet to suffer a defeat on the field this spring. However, the Eagles experienced a major setback off the diamond with the seasonlong loss of ace hurler Travis Garnett.
Indian Creek improved to 3-0 on this young season after pounding Anne Arundel County private school rival Severn School, 13-0, on Tuesday at Kinder Farm Park.
It was a bittersweet win for the Eagles as it came on the same day Garnett, a University of Maryland commit, underwent Tommy John surgery. The 6-foot-6 left-handed pitcher and first baseman had a reconstruction of the ulnar collateral ligament performed.
“Things are going pretty well, but we had a gut punch the other day,” Indian Creek coach Matt Selmer said. “We found out about 10 days ago [Garnett] needed Tommy John surgery, so that was a tough one. They just have to galvanize around each other. He had surgery today and he’s out in right field with his mom supporting the team.”
Looking to make up the loss of Garnett was right-handed hurler Alex Seidleck, who limited Severn to a pair of hits by Jack Castleberry and Ben Campion while recording nine strikeouts in a complete-game effort.
“Alex Seidleck has always been a good player, but he has really stepped up for us,” Selmer said. “He’s been topping out at 84-85 [MPH}. If he keeps throwing like that, we feel real good where we’re at.”
Seidleck allowed just one batter to reach base in the final three innings with five punch-outs.
“I was really trying to throw first pitch strikes and attack hitters,” Seidleck said. “Our offense got us ahead pretty quickly, so I was just trying to attack the zone and get as many out as I could.”
Indian Creek erupted for four runs in the top of the first inning on two hits, two errors and a walk. Logan Harris knocked in two of those runs on a double to dead center field.
The Eagles padded that advantage with four more runs in the top of the second for an 8-0 lead.
Seidleck got things going with a run-scoring single to left field and the next three runs came courtesy of three consecutive wild pitches, which necessitated the removal of starting pitcher Tristan Collins in favor of Gavin Schut.
Harris drove in another run in the third inning with a ground-ball single to left field. Alex Craig followed with a run-scoring double to left center field to bring home Harris and increase the lead to 10-0.
“Mainly during practice I’ve been focusing on keeping my head down and getting through the ball and not doing too much and over-swinging,” Harris said. “I’ve been working on hitting line drives and that’s what happened with that line drive to center field.
“We can be great even though we lost one of our top dogs. With this group of kids we’ve got, we can really come through and be a top contender in the B conference. I think we are going to do really well,” Harris added.
Indian Creek’s advantage grew to 11-0 in the fifth on a single to left field by Pratt and eventually to the final margin on a run-scoring single by Sawyer Shephard followed by an error.
Severn dropped to 1-3 with the setback, but coach Robert Laffey is pleased with his team’s progress thus far.
“The season is going well,” he said. “We’re a young team; we’re growing. We are setting achievable goals and reaching for them. We’re putting guys in positions they’re not entirely ready for. That happens with a small school. It’s about growing. We’re better today than we were on day one.”