WHAT A RELIEF
Senior checks WWT, helps Fraser win MAC crossover baseball game
Devin Slabiak was in strikeout style and Fraser took advantage.
The senior right-hander who struck out six in three innings kept visiting Warren Woods-Tower from expanding its lead before the Ramblers exploited the Titans’ wildness in a 12-6 MAC crossover baseball victory Wednesday.
Slabiak entered the game with the bases loaded and no outs in the top of the fifth, and he struck the first three batters he faced — all on swinging third strikes — to prevent Warren Woods-Tower from adding to a 6-2 lead.
“Coach told me I had to throw strikes,” Slabiak said. “I buckled myself down and threw strikes and got out of that squeeze.”
Slabiak, who features a fastball and a knuckle curve, struck out two in the sixth and got his final strikeout for the second out of the seventh after the Ramblers scored eight runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Despite a delay in the official start of spring practice, Slabiak doesn’t feel ill effects of down time due to COVID-19 protocols.
“I feel great,” he said after making his third appearance in Fraser’s four games. “The first game was a little rough, but I feel great now.
“I was able to get in a lot of (offseason) work with my travel team, the Mariners. I’m still lifting weights. That has added a lot of velocity to my fastball.”
Fraser bunched nine walks, two singles and a sacrifice fly in the game-turning sixth.
“It was a rough game,” Fraser coach Dave Kuppe said. “It got kind of cold out here.
“Pitchers don’t have a lot of innings in right now. You’re trying to piece your pitching together. It came down to who could throw strikes. That was the big difference in the game.”
Warren Woods-Tower built a 6-0 lead with two runs in the first, three in the second and one in the fourth behind starter Chris Gawel.
Gawel, a right-hander, allowed two runs, both in the fourth inning.
“He did a really good job,” Kuppe said. Gawel had three strikeouts in the second, the third coming with the bases loaded.
He got the final out in the fourth when Jonathan Genovich made a sliding catch in center field with two Ramblers on base.
Gawel also helped the Titans’ offense with a two-run double to left in the second.
Aiden Manzella and Mason Jenkins had an RBI apiece as Fraser scored twice in the fifth to make it 6-4.
Three Warren Woods-Tower pitchers worked the sixth that featured a sacrifice fly by Vincente Saucedo and a run-scoring single by Manzella.
Fraser plays a doubleheader at Algonac on Saturday.
“We got started a little late and we’re really just in tryouts now,” Kuppe said. “We haven’t made cuts yet.”
L’ANSE CREUSE 16, MOTT 6
L’Anse Creuse won the MAC crossover game
Softball
MEMPHIS 15-8, BURTON BENTLEY 3-3
Memphis swept the GTC East doubleheader.