Ike ‘battling’ in prep for MAC Red season
A year ago they had time on their hands. Now they have none to spare.
St. Clair defeated Eisenhower 9-5 in eight innings Wednesday in a MAC crossover baseball game that didn’t count in the standings but meant everything to both sides.
It was St. Clair’s first game and Ike’s second in this coronavirus-delayed season. Both have a sense of urgency to get settled, because division play, which features teams meeting an opponent three times in four days, starts next week.
“We’re calling this our extended spring training,” Saints coach Dennis White said.
Virus protocols since the 2020 season was cancelled made teams juggle indoor and outdoor practice schedules.
Neither the MAC White Saints nor the MAC Red Eagles have finalized rosters.
“You get to see the kids you have against other competition, which is a blessing,” White said. “That’s really fair to do it that way.
White used four pitchers. Eisenhower, which defeated Rochester Adams on Tuesday, is looking at almost two dozen players during a week in which the Eagles are scheduled to play six games.
“We’re seeing what we’ve got,” Eagles coach Steve Spisak said. “We’re learning them. They’re learning our coaching style.
“We’ve got 23 guys battling for spots, and it’s fun.”
The Eagles have 15 pitchers. “The three best will be our MAC Red starters,” Spisak added.
St. Clair built a 5-1 lead before Eisenhower rallied.
The Eagles scored one run in the bottom of the fourth and
three in the fifth.
In the eighth, Caleb Achatz lined a two-run single to center field and St. Clair scored two more runs on an infield error.
Matt Buslepp pitched the bottom of the eighth. First baseman Kalvin Heid snared a line drive to start
an unassisted double play for the first two outs.
“(Winning) was a pleasant addition, because we had so many things to work on,” White said. “We had a checklist of things we were concerned about, and we answered them all. That was very nice.”
White reviewed how the Saints built a lead, lost it and recovered to win.
“We couldn’t have scripted it better,” he said.
Left-hander Luke Merkau, who started and pitched two innings, is the only Saint who played a varsity game before Wednesday.
“It’s like you don’t have a senior class,” White said. “It’s like you have juniors, sophomores and freshmen, from a high school perspective.”
The Saints’ pitchers did well, the coach said.
“It wasn’t really clean, but
they got into trouble, they got out of trouble. You can’t do that in practice, or set it up like that in practice.”
Eisenhower ends the week with a doubleheader Saturday against Ford.
“We battled to the end,” Spisak said after the Eagles’ record went to 1-1. “I would rather sit out here in 45-degree weather and battle than not play at all.
“We’re just happy to be out here.”