Avon wins SWC opener over Avon Lake

Eagles jump out to early lead, Laurendeau comes on in relief to hold off the Shoremen

With the pressure of an early conference game and the daunting Southwestern Conference schedule looming large, Avon held on to beat Avon Lake, 3-2, on the road March 29 in an SWC opener.

The Eagles jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning, but as the day got colder, so did

the bats, and even the pitchers struggled to get a good grip on the ball with the wind off the lake cooling things down more and more. An insurance run in the fifth turned out to be the game-winner when Will Kocar hit a line drive to left field, scoring Neil Strodtbeck.

“We need to execute a little bit better,” Avon coach Frank DeSmit said. “I know it’s cold and nobody really likes swinging a bat this time of year, but fortunately our pitchers came through at the end there. We got a little wild there in the middle.

“We know that in this conference, four losses is still probably going to give you a pretty good chance. As long as we can keep putting off that first loss for a while, we’ll be in good shape.”

After staying patient and forcing Avon reliever Jake Egger into a jam, Avon Lake gave itself a chance to steal the lead in the bottom of the sixth with the bases loaded and one out as junior William Laurendeau took the mound for the Eagles.

The Shoremen had already put a pair of runs on the board off two bases-loaded walks when Sean Tegeder stepped to the plate, and though the senior made what coach Kevin Marlow

called the best contact all game, the Eagles played it perfectly, getting an inning-ending double play to maintain the lead.

“Right off the bat I was thinking, ‘That’s not good, right up the middle,’ but senior shortstop, Tommy (Kocar), I trusted him right off the bat and knew he would make the play and I was off the field,” Laurendeau said.

“We have probably our best contact of the day with Tegeder at the end of the sixth, put the screw right on it, but (Avon) had it played perfect and that was that,” Marlow added. “We went from thinking we were going to be up one to, ‘Oh, we’re still down.’”

Avon Lake threatened again in the bottom of the seventh, but with one out and runners on first and second, the Shoremen couldn’t manufacture a run as Laurendeau retired the final two batters, including a huge strikeout

for the final out and the win.

“I trust my defense and as soon as I got that call up I knew I just needed to do my job,” Laurendeau said. “Practice every day, this is what we work for, those high pressure moments.

“I struggled the first few pitches. I had to get comfortable. I knew the game was riding on that at-bat so I knew it was big for me to help my team out there.”

The Shoremen stranded seven runners and managed only two hits. Against anyone, let alone a tough conference opponent like Avon, Marlow said that’s just not going to be enough to get it done.

“We had base runners on all day, we just couldn’t deliver when we needed to deliver,” Marlow said. “When you’re going up against a team that’s that good you have to be on it, and I thought we had a nice effort today, but it just wasn’t enough.”

The Shoremen travel to Westlake March 30 to continue SWC play, while Avon hosts North Olmsted at Sprenger Stadium.