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After loss, Kenston hitters blitz Chagrin
(by Tony Lange - May 04, 2011)
After loss, Kenston hitters blitz Chagrin
By TONY LANGE
After losing at Chagrin Falls, 7-6, in the bottom of the eighth inning April 26, the Kenston Bombers baseball team and the Tigers were tied at 5-1 each in the Chagrin Valley Conference race. Two days later, Kenston beat the Tigers, 15-1, on its home diamond.
Michael Fearer, Kenston's star pitcher, picked up his second loss of the season to drop to 6-2 in the first game, which Kenston head coach Bob Ford described as hard to watch. Fearer may not have pitched his best game, but he certainly pitched well enough to win, Ford said.
"We picked our first game to play our worst baseball of the season. We gave up five unearned runs," Ford said. "We didn't play very well. We didn't execute when we needed to. It just wasn't a very good baseball game by us. Fearer deserved better fate than a loss in that game. But that will happen. They don't all fall the way you would like them to. There's no doubt about that."
The Bombers had practice the next day, regrouped, went over some odds and ends with a lot of chalk talk and came out ready to play when they returned home for Thursday's match-up, Ford said.
The Bombers rebounded with 15 hits and 15 runs in four innings to reclaim the sole CVC lead with the 15-1 win over the Tigers. Austin Bailey led the team with a two-run home run, a double and six RBI. Pat Porter and Nick Levine collected three hits each, with Porter hitting a home run and a triple. On the mound, Kyle McKnight pitched a complete game with six strikeouts to improve to 4-1.
The Bombers played absolutely phenomenal and hit as well as they have all year in that game, Ford said.
"Getting back into first place by ourselves was real important," he said. "After a bad game, we came out with a good game. That's what you've got to do. You can't just win all of them, but if you don't play well, you've got to be able to bounce back, and we certainly did it."
Every single player in the lineup got a hit, Ford said.
"I think all but one scored a run," he said. "It was a pretty awesome offensive display. It was really something else to watch. Porter and Bailey both hit home runs in the same inning. It was an offensive display. That's for sure. That's why we have Pat Porter lead off, because we have no issues with the guys batting in front of him. I think the three batters batting in front of Patrick are like .350, .450 and .460. So they're all hitting."
After the Chagrin Falls series, Kenston beat Akron Hoban, 5-4, and lost to Tallmadge in nine innings, 5-4, during Saturday's Hudson Cancer Awareness Classic at Kent State University.
Against Hoban, the Bombers rallied a come-from-behind win with two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, when Nick Levine scored the winning run and Porter hit a key double. Bailey hit another two-run home run. Sophomore Sean O'Conner picked up his first win of the season as he came in as a reliever in the seventh inning.
Against Tallmadge, Kenston tied the game at 3-3 in the top of the seventh with Porter's two-out, two-run single to send it into extra innings. Kenston took a 4-3 lead in the top of the eighth before the Blue Devils scored in the bottom of the eighth and ninth innings for a 5-4 win. Kenston dropped to 13-4 on the season.
"These are two real good baseball teams," Ford said. "We played two really strong games, just really nice baseball. Certainly, you always want to win, but I'm not disappointed coming away with a split, because the teams were of really high caliber. It was a great tournament. I'm glad we get invited to come."
Coming up, Kenston travels to Aurora at 4:30 p.m. Friday to culminate its conference play.
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