Warren’s Al Winters (2) crosses home plate as Marietta catcher Drew Warden awaits a throw during Thursday’s game in Vincent. Warren won, 8-1. (Photo by Mike Morrison)
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VINCENT — The Marietta Tigers got off to a pretty decent start in Thursday’s Twin States League re-match against arch-rival Warren.
Unfortunately for the young Tigers of first-year head coach Kail Hill, it was all Warren from that point on as the Warriors rolled to an 8-1 win to capture the season sweep.
Cooper Laumann singled in fellow senior Drew Warden to give the Tigers a 1-0 first inning lead, but the Warriors would score eight unanswered runs the rest of the way to improve to 7-2 on the season.
“I’m proud of the guys because they come out mentally ready and know the importance of every game,” said Warren head coach Chad Porter. “We played clean baseball, we got a quality start and we hit the baseball really well today so I’m really pleased.”
Warren took advantage of five Tiger errors while playing a clean game of their own.
After spotting the Tigers the first inning run the Warriors quickly tied things up by scoring a first inning run of their own off of Laumann.
Braylen Murray led off the inning for the Warriors with a single and moved to second on the first MHS error of the game.
Senior shortstop Jacob Sealey singled sharply into left field to score Murray with the tying run.
Laumann escaped any further damage by retiring the final two Warren hitters of the inning.
Sophomore Tate Jonas started the game for the Warriors. After allowing the first inning run, Jonas settled down nicely, taking advantage of some outstanding Warrior defense behind him.
Warren took the lead in the second inning when Haiden Strong doubled and two outs later came into score when Jonas helped himself in a big way by stroking a two-out, run-scoring double.
The Warriors were able to put some distance between the two by batting around in the bottom of the third to score three times and bring an end to Laumann’s day on the mound.
Jacob Stauffer got things started with a base hit and Sealey followed by collecting his second hit of the game.
A pair of Tiger errors on the same play allowed one run to score and a sacrifice fly by Jayce Hilverding and an RBI hit by Al Winters brought home the other two as the Warriors increased their lead to 5-1.
Warren collected 10 base hits in the game with all but one of the eight starters collecting at least one knock.
“We are starting to swing it a little bit better and we are finally starting to get some hits with runners on base,” said Porter. “We feel like the wheels are starting to move a little bit and that’s what we have been waiting for.”
The home team added another run in the fourth when Stauffer reached on yet another Tiger miscue and later came in to score on a base hit by Hilverding.
Jonas managed to survive a bit of wildness as the right hander walked six batters in his five-plus innings of work.
After walking the first two batters to begin the sixth inning with the five-run lead, Porter summoned Murray on in relief from his center field position and the left-hander managed to get out of the inning without any runs scoring.
Porter was pleased with the job his two pitchers did on the bump.
“Tate gave us a quality start and went five innings but he was kind of starting to labor,” said Porter. “We thought it was time to make the change and Braylen came in and did a great job.”
Warren scored their final two runs of the game in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI double by Bo Jonas and a run-producing base hit off the bat of Strong.
Murray finished things off in the top of the seventh as he got a nifty game-ending double play by his defense to end the game.
Porter was pleased with the way his team performed in just about every facet of the game, especially defensively.
“I think anytime that you can catch the ball consistently you give yourself a great chance to win,” said Porter. “That’s something that we preach and I’m sure every other team in the country preaches but catching the ball routinely gives you every chance to win and that’s what we did tonight.”
The Tigers have taken their lumps so far this week as they came out on the short end of lop-sided losses to Fort Frye and Wheeling Central Catholic before losing to their arch rivals.
“We’ve just got to do a better job of catching the ball and throwing it because if we do that tonight it’s probably not a seven-run ball game,” said Hill, whose team slipped to 4-8 overall and 0-5 in league play. “My message to the guys is I just want nine guys that are inspired to go out and play baseball. There’s some bad body language that we are trying to nip in the bud right now and get guys to be inspired, win, lose or draw.”
Marietta will travel to Athens on Friday while the Warriors host Waterford Saturday.
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