OLSM slugs past Brother Rice - twice
ORCHARD LAKE >> The host Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Eaglets rolled to a double header sweep of the Birmingham Brother Rice Warriors Saturday afternoon, defeating the Warriors 15-0 and 11-1.
The Eaglets’ offense started hot and never cooled off. St. Mary’s serviced notice of what was to come in the bottom of the first inning in game one. After a leadoff walk to Jake Dresselhouse, the next three batters had extra base hits, capped by a home run from Ike Irish, and the Eaglets led 4-0 before the Warriors had recorded an out.
St. Mary’s mashed the ball seemingly at will in the first game as every ball the Eaglets hit seemed to be crushed - even the outs were often loud. They scored at least three runs in every inning and finished the game off in the bottom of the fourth on a two-run single by Dresselhouse. The Eaglets pounded out 15 runs on 13 hits, including home runs by Brock Porter, Nolan Schubart, and the aforementioned blast by Irish.
Meanwhile, pitcher John Essig was mowing down batters – striking out 10 of the 14 batters he faced and shutting the Warriors out on just two hits – singles by John Locker and Alfredo Velazquez — neither of which made it past second base.
In the second game, the Eaglets again jumped out early — this time without the aid of a hit. Two hit batters and a walk loaded
the bases to start the game, and St. Mary’s plated a pair of runs on a force out and a sacrifice fly.
“The game is simple: You throw strikes, you catch the ball, and you put the ball in play more than the other team, and you’re going to have success.
“We put guys on bases. We start off the second game hitting two guys, walking a guy, then they get a hit and it changes the whole complexion,” Warriors head coach Bob Riker said.
“The first inning in both games were huge for us to get down like that.
“From that point on, it makes it hard. But they (St. Mary’s) are a great club. They have very talented players.”
The Warrior pitchers only gave up five hits in the second game, but ten walks, three errors, and two hit batters kept the bases full for the Eaglets, who plated their first four runs without the aid of a hit.
Brother Rice’s offense struggled in the second game as well, though they did break through in the sixth inning.
Trailing 9-0 at that point, the Warriors loaded the bases with one out, but Tommy Allman wriggled out of the jam with only one run allowed on a ground out by Will Shannon.
Allman through a complete game with 13 strikeouts.
St. Mary’s offense on the day was led by Schubart who homered in both games and drove in nine runs.
“He did a great job, hit a couple balls out, and the thing I liked to see was that he stayed on the ball and drove them out the opposite way,” Eaglets head coach Matt Petry said.
“Over the past couple of days, he’d been getting kind of pull happy but did a good job staying with it there.”
Ike Irish knocked in four runs, while leadoff man Jake Dresselhouse was on base six times and scored five runs.
“Obviously, that’s a quality team over there, and there were undefeated in league play coming into today, so we wanted to give it our best effort, and they put some good swings on the ball,” Petry said.
“We had a lot of guys do a lot of good things today,” he added.
St. Mary’s improves to 13-0 overall and 8-0 in the Catholic League.
The Eaglets face Detroit Country Day on Monday.
Brother Rice (8-3, 4-2 CHSL) have a few days off before facing University of Detroit- Jesuit on Wednesday.
“I like my club a lot. I like my players. I think they do a good job.
“They play the game the right way, for sure,” Riker said. “They play hard. This is one of the most talented teams I’ve had. It’s just a matter of getting everything to gel and come together. The season is a marathon. It’s not a short sprint, and we’ll see where we are at the end,” he added.