Despite Errors, Marian Ends Valley's Season
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
PLYMOUTH - Like Tony Stewart in a race car on Memorial Day, the numbers seemed to make endless laps inside second year Tippecanoe Valley baseball coach Scott Backus' head.
At the conclusion of Valley's first-round sectional game with Mishawaka Marian Monday, the scoreboard read Marian 8, Valley 2.
Not to be confused with the score, these numbers represented the errors.
Despite numerous errors, Marian topped Valley 5-4.
"We made some base running mistakes," Backus, a former Valley player himself, said. "We put ourselves in position twice, and we took ourselves out of position twice. We stayed in the game when we needed to."
The loss ends Valley's season at 11-14-1; Marian improves to 15-14 and will play Rochester in Thursday's first game. Rochester (20-7) topped Whitko (11-10) 8-0 in Monday's second game.
Marian's Michael Schroder belted a solo home run in the first inning, but Valley came back and loaded the bases on singles from Derek Sausaman, Phil Jackson and B.J. Cunningham to start the bottom of the first. All three scored in the inning on Marian errors, and the Vikings were in control 3-1.
The Knights made it 3-2 in the second inning when junior third baseman Josh Hackett scored.
Through the middle part of the game, the headlines belonged to Marian pitcher Perry Shearer.
The right-handed senior mowed down 12 Viking consecutive batters, starting with the second inning and continuing through the second Valley hitter of the fifth inning. Despite his performance, the Vikings still held on to a 4-2 advantage - thanks in large part to Marian's high number of errors.
Schroder led off the sixth inning by reaching on an error. He later scored to cut Valley's lead to 4-3. Senior Michael Welsch followed with a single and later stole home knot the game at 4.
Valley catcher Wes Backus reached first on an error to lead off the Viking's half of the sixth. Starting pitcher Kevin Day then grounded out, followed by Nathan Shewman reaching on yet another Knight error. Shewman and Backus were both caught stealing to end the inning. Thus going back to Valley's troubles on the base paths.
Freshman Jeff Cress popped out to start the seventh inning for Marian, followed by consecutive hit batters, Ben Jonas and Shearer.
Day, who picked up the loss after 6 1/3 innings of work with one walk and five strikeouts, was then replaced by B.J. Cunningham.
Cunningham walked the junior George Catanzarite, the first batter he faced, to load the bases. Pinch runner Brendan Krueger then scored what became the winning run on a passed ball.
Junior Mike Schwenk led off the seventh for Valley, reaching first after being hit by a pitch. Schwenk was later caught stealing, and Marian ended Valley's season with a 6-4-3 double play.
"We had three errors on the bases," Backus said. "That really killed us. We had ourselves in position to win and just didn't get it done."
Valley finished the day with five hits. Cunningham led the Vikings at the plate with a 2-for-3 performance. Jeremiah Haney, Sausaman and Jackson each had one hit in the loss.
Welsch and Sexton had two hits each to lead Mishawaka Marian.
MISHAWAKA MARIAN 5
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 4
Marian AB R H RBI
Shearer p 3 0 1 0
Catanzarite 2b 3 0 0 0
Schroder cf 3 2 1 1
Welsch ss 4 1 2 1
Sexton c 3 0 2 0
Hackett 3b 2 1 0 0
Dillon dh 3 0 0 0
Cress lf 2 0 1 1
Jonas rf 2 0 1 0
Miscinski 1b 0 0 0 0
Krueger pr 0 1 0 0
Totals 25 5 8 3
T. Valley AB R H RBI
Sausaman 2b 3 1 1 0
Jackson ss 2 1 1 0
Cunningham cf 3 1 2 2
Deardorff 3b 3 0 0 0
Backus c 0 0 0 0
Day p 3 0 0 0
Shewman 1b 2 0 0 0
Swanson rf 2 0 0 0
Haney lf 2 1 1 0
Schwenk ph 0 0 0 0
Mitterling rf 0 0 0 0
Kindig pr 0 0 0 0
Totals 20 4 5 2
Marian (15-14) 110 002 1 - 5 8 8
T. Valley (11-14-1#) 300 010 0 - 4 4 2
2B - Welsch. HR - Schroder. E - Hackett (3), Sexton (2), Schroder, Jonas, Welsch, Haney, Day.
IP H R BB SO
Marian
Shearer (W, 4-4) 7 5 4 1 8
T. Valley
Day (L, 2-3) 6 1/3 8 4 1 5
Cunningham 2/3 3 1 0 0 [[In-content Ad]]
PLYMOUTH - Like Tony Stewart in a race car on Memorial Day, the numbers seemed to make endless laps inside second year Tippecanoe Valley baseball coach Scott Backus' head.
At the conclusion of Valley's first-round sectional game with Mishawaka Marian Monday, the scoreboard read Marian 8, Valley 2.
Not to be confused with the score, these numbers represented the errors.
Despite numerous errors, Marian topped Valley 5-4.
"We made some base running mistakes," Backus, a former Valley player himself, said. "We put ourselves in position twice, and we took ourselves out of position twice. We stayed in the game when we needed to."
The loss ends Valley's season at 11-14-1; Marian improves to 15-14 and will play Rochester in Thursday's first game. Rochester (20-7) topped Whitko (11-10) 8-0 in Monday's second game.
Marian's Michael Schroder belted a solo home run in the first inning, but Valley came back and loaded the bases on singles from Derek Sausaman, Phil Jackson and B.J. Cunningham to start the bottom of the first. All three scored in the inning on Marian errors, and the Vikings were in control 3-1.
The Knights made it 3-2 in the second inning when junior third baseman Josh Hackett scored.
Through the middle part of the game, the headlines belonged to Marian pitcher Perry Shearer.
The right-handed senior mowed down 12 Viking consecutive batters, starting with the second inning and continuing through the second Valley hitter of the fifth inning. Despite his performance, the Vikings still held on to a 4-2 advantage - thanks in large part to Marian's high number of errors.
Schroder led off the sixth inning by reaching on an error. He later scored to cut Valley's lead to 4-3. Senior Michael Welsch followed with a single and later stole home knot the game at 4.
Valley catcher Wes Backus reached first on an error to lead off the Viking's half of the sixth. Starting pitcher Kevin Day then grounded out, followed by Nathan Shewman reaching on yet another Knight error. Shewman and Backus were both caught stealing to end the inning. Thus going back to Valley's troubles on the base paths.
Freshman Jeff Cress popped out to start the seventh inning for Marian, followed by consecutive hit batters, Ben Jonas and Shearer.
Day, who picked up the loss after 6 1/3 innings of work with one walk and five strikeouts, was then replaced by B.J. Cunningham.
Cunningham walked the junior George Catanzarite, the first batter he faced, to load the bases. Pinch runner Brendan Krueger then scored what became the winning run on a passed ball.
Junior Mike Schwenk led off the seventh for Valley, reaching first after being hit by a pitch. Schwenk was later caught stealing, and Marian ended Valley's season with a 6-4-3 double play.
"We had three errors on the bases," Backus said. "That really killed us. We had ourselves in position to win and just didn't get it done."
Valley finished the day with five hits. Cunningham led the Vikings at the plate with a 2-for-3 performance. Jeremiah Haney, Sausaman and Jackson each had one hit in the loss.
Welsch and Sexton had two hits each to lead Mishawaka Marian.
MISHAWAKA MARIAN 5
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 4
Marian AB R H RBI
Shearer p 3 0 1 0
Catanzarite 2b 3 0 0 0
Schroder cf 3 2 1 1
Welsch ss 4 1 2 1
Sexton c 3 0 2 0
Hackett 3b 2 1 0 0
Dillon dh 3 0 0 0
Cress lf 2 0 1 1
Jonas rf 2 0 1 0
Miscinski 1b 0 0 0 0
Krueger pr 0 1 0 0
Totals 25 5 8 3
T. Valley AB R H RBI
Sausaman 2b 3 1 1 0
Jackson ss 2 1 1 0
Cunningham cf 3 1 2 2
Deardorff 3b 3 0 0 0
Backus c 0 0 0 0
Day p 3 0 0 0
Shewman 1b 2 0 0 0
Swanson rf 2 0 0 0
Haney lf 2 1 1 0
Schwenk ph 0 0 0 0
Mitterling rf 0 0 0 0
Kindig pr 0 0 0 0
Totals 20 4 5 2
Marian (15-14) 110 002 1 - 5 8 8
T. Valley (11-14-1#) 300 010 0 - 4 4 2
2B - Welsch. HR - Schroder. E - Hackett (3), Sexton (2), Schroder, Jonas, Welsch, Haney, Day.
IP H R BB SO
Marian
Shearer (W, 4-4) 7 5 4 1 8
T. Valley
Day (L, 2-3) 6 1/3 8 4 1 5
Cunningham 2/3 3 1 0 0 [[In-content Ad]]