The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Pioneers bounce back against Titans
After struggling through a losing skid during the week, Elyria righted the ship against rival Lorain and took both games of a doubleheader by identical 11-1 run rules on April 15.
The Pioneers’ wasted little time to get things going as adverse weather began rolling in, with senior Freddie Weimer on the mound. Weimer had a four-pitch second inning and turned the ball over to his offense to give him a lead to work with.
Elyria catcher Seth France launched a ball that cleared the deep wall in left-center to give his team an early 1-0 lead.
“It felt pretty good, I was just trying to get going early, just try and get something going for my team,” France said. “I tried to get at least two, that’s what I’m always thinking out the box is get two bags, but once I hit it at first I kind of knew it was going.”
With the lead, Weimer went at the Lorain hitters. He pitched efficiently and let the defense do its job. He made 74 pitches and went 5 2/3 innings and looked sharp to earn the win.
“I thought I pitched decent. I wasn’t hitting spots as much as I wanted to, but I have a great defense behind me, so I was just putting the ball over the plate and letting my defense work,” Weimer said. “It’s a nice feeling pitching with the lead, especially such a big lead and going out there every inning having more of a lead. I just felt more secure pitching.”
The Pioneers received big contributions from France, freshman Michael Knapp (2-for-3, RBI), junior Carter Hyde (2-for-2, RBI) and sophomore
Zachary Schuster (1for-1, RBI).
With the rain clearing out and making way for sun and humidity, the Pioneers came out with the same intensity in Game 2 and jumped on the Titans early for an 11-1 victory in five innings.
Elyria’s scored four runs in the third inning, thanks to aggressive base running. The Pioneers exploited several errors to help Schuster, the starter for the second game. The outburst included a two-run single from senior Jordan Reed.
Elyria also stayed sharp on defense. Reed, the third baseman, made three stellar plays that could have broken the game open for Lorain.
Charging on a dribbler up the third baseline with a man on, Reed made a bare-handed grab and pin-point throw to get the batter. Shortly after that, Reed stole a hit from a Titans’ bat and made a great throw to get out of the third inning.
“(Reed’s) made some major-league plays all year for us and I’ve come to expect that from him. This week he got a little lazy, wasn’t moving his feet and got caught on in-betweeners,” Elyria coach Ed Piazza said. “Five years I’ve been here looking for that third baseman, and he was normally our shortstop last year and we moved him over this year. He’s going to Lake Erie (College) to play third so we decided to move him over there when we have a kid going to Kent at short.”
Piazza added the Pioneers have a lot to take from the day.
“We talked about it in the losing streak this week. Getting two today a day before Myrtle Beach and trying to get something positive going this week (was important),” Piazza said. “It was a good day all around. The team effort was there. Big hits, good defense and both pitchers pitched well.”
Lorain coach Brad Ternes said the Titans can rebound from the sweep.
“Once again our defense let us down. Too many errors. Too many extra opportunities for them to capitalize on, which they did,” Ternes said. “They made our pitchers throw extra pitches because I thought both our pitchers did pretty well.
“Our guys, they can dig down deep. I know they can play better than this, they’ve just got to find it within themselves to come back and try to keep their heads up. Hopefully we can pull together as a team, get behind one another and try to pick it up on Monday.”