Young Wickliffe, VASJ split twinbill

Growing pains and inconsistency are often hallmarks of young teams.

Featuring a combined eight freshmen and sophomores — half of the team’s 16-player roster-Wickliffe has had its share of ups and downs this season.

That roller-coaster dynamic was on display on May 1 as the Blue Devils split a doubleheader with visiting Villa Angela-St. Joseph.

Wickliffe sophomore Shaun Derganc pitched a complete game in the opener, striking out 10 and walking four, to lead the Blue Devils to a 3-1 victory.

The Vikings put up four runs in the seventh inning of the second game to earn a 7-3 win and a split of the twinbill.

After surrendering a run in the first inning of the first game, Derganc cruised through the next four innings before running into trouble with a bases-loaded jam in the sixth frame and allowing two baserunners in the seventh.

Derganc, who improved to 4-1, struck out two batters to end the Vikings’ threat in the sixth, and finished off the seventh with a pop-up and fly out.

“My fastball was moving today, especially my twoseamer,” Derganc said. “I gotta give (credit) to my coach. He’s always telling me to keep my head in the game and I can do my thing. When they had the bases loaded, I kept my composure and took my time on the mound, and just executed.”

VASJ senior Vasilios Capuozzo led off the first inning with a double, stole third, and scored on a wild pitch for a 1-0 Viking lead.

Wickliffe broke through against VASJ starter Zac Tizzano in the fourth inning when sophomore Vince Gargiulo singled and eventually scored on a balk. The Blue Devils took a 2-1 lead on a RBI single by junior Greg Kita later in the frame.

Gargiulo came across the plate again in the fifth after reaching on an error, and Derganc made the 3-1 lead stand up despite the traffic on the bases over the final two stanzas.

“We weren’t going to use Shaun today, but he hadn’t pitched in a while. So we thought we had to get him on the mound,” Wickliffe coach Phil Motta said. “He’s 4-1 on the season, and he keeps us in games. He did a nice job against Cleveland Heights, and for him to hold (VASJ) to one run was great, especially on a day when we were really limited on the number of arms we could throw.”

VASJ (9-8) bounced back in the second game, taking a 3-0 lead in the fourth. Capuozzo reached on a dropped fly ball and came around to score in the first inning. Senior Eddie Marxen scored on a single by senior Ayden Stuble-Martin in the second, and scored again before a teammate was thrown out for the third out at third base in the fourth.

Wickliffe responded with three runs in the bottom of the stanza, the big blow being a single by Kita that drove in Derganc and Jimmy Nemeth after Bryce Gilman had scored on a balk.

Kita added a highlight-reel defensive play for the Blue Devils in the fifth, going deep into the hole at shortstop to snare a grounder, then whirling and throwing a dart to first base to retire the batter.

Stuble-Martin, on the mound for the Vikings, and freshman Bobby Plumb, pitching for the Blue Devils, battled through the next two innings until VASJ grabbed the momentum in the seventh.

A run-scoring single by senior Charle Stachnik and and RBI double by senior Larry Osborne keyed the Vikings’ 4-run rally in the seventh. Capuozzo came on in relief with one out in the bottom of the inning and allowed a walk and a RBI groundout before striking out Nemeth to end the game.

Osborne finished with six hits, three in each game, including two doubles in the second game.

“We just hit the ball a lot better in the second game and played great defense,” Osborne said. “We had errors and didn’t hit the ball well in the first game.”

Stuble-Martin gave up seven hits and four runs, walked two and struck out seven in his 6 1/3 innings.

“I was just throwing strikes,” Stuble-Martin said. “The one inning we had a four-pitch inning, I was just throwing it down the middle, they were hitting it, and we made the plays.”

VASJ coach Dennis Woods was far from thrilled after the first game, pointing out that the Vikings struck out 10 times, left 10 runners on base, and had a player thrown out at home from the outfield with two outs. But VASJ redeemed itself in the second game.

“We split,” Woods said. “I was disappointed that we didn’t come out in the first game with any intensity or any desire. But a split is better than two losses.”

For Wickliffe, now 9-9 on the season, the abundance of youth should portend a bright future for a team that will lose just three seniors to graduation after this season. The Blue Devils were missing three standout players due to injury.

“We have some guys that are injured, so you have to go with the nine or 10 guys that you have,” Motta said. “Sometimes we start a little slow, but we’ve been in every game we’ve played. They battle, and they keep getting better every day. That’s our goal this year, to get better every day.”