2008 Woodie Awards
'Necks win shootout with Coe
Jon Oakley
Issue date: 5/2/08 Section: Sports
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Coe College (21-15), a Division 3 school, knocked around Western's (11-26, 4-8 Summit League) pitchers in search of the upset.
"(Our offense) came ready to play today," said coach Stan Hyman. "Pitching-wise, those guys didn't have it today."
Junior reliever Ryan Schmidt got his first start of the season and struggled through six innings. He allowed six runs on nine hits. Sophomore Austin Brough pitched the seventh and eighth and looked good in the seventh, but he gave up a two-run home run in the eighth, pulling the score to 11-8. Freshman closer Chris Fuchs shut down the Coe College offense and pitched a 1-2-3 ninth.
The Leathernecks unleashed 13 hits and battled throughout to keep the lead, scoring in all but one inning of the shootout.
Laidig's two bombs highlighted the game, but junior second baseman Cole Waddell contributed with his own home run in his first at-bat and went 2-for-4 on the day, knocking in three. Joining them in the offensive explosion, senior designated hitter James Bina and junior outfielder Jared Wolf both had three-hit games.
"The key is to take our pitches and not be too aggressive but be aggressive at the same time," said Laidig. "If I'm in an offensive count - 1-0, 2-1, 3-1 - I always try to drive the ball for a double. If I'm in like a 1-1 or 0-1, a neutral count, I'm just trying to hit the ball up the middle. Both my home runs came off offensive counts. "
Hyman agreed that the offense was waiting for the right pitch against Coe College.
"I think it is all about approaches," Hyman said. "Today we had good approaches. They were patient and they were waiting for the fastball that they could drive, they weren't swinging at stuff out of the zone.
"We have got to have good individual at bats and quality at-bats. It's situational hitting and being smart, that's what we need to do."
The pressure will be on the offense for the remainder of the season. Sources close to the team have said that both junior ace Eric Eden and freshman reliever Jimmy LaPlume will be out with injuries for the rest of the regular season. LaPlume may, however, make a return for a Summit League Tournament appearance.
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Leatherneck
posted 5/26/08 @ 9:46 PM CST
Since when are baseball games referred to as 'shootouts'? That's awful. Only basketball and hockey games can be called shootouts. Maybe a showdown or something. (Continued…)
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