Dustin White
Effingham Daily News
May 13, 2008 11:25 am
—
Effingham High School's late-season baseball struggles continued Monday at Paul Smith Field, where the staggering Flaming Hearts club dropped its fourth game in a row by a 5-1 count to visiting Dieterich.
Ten of the 11 EHS players to log at least one at-bat went down on strikes at some point during Monday's proceedings as four different Movin' Maroons hurlers combined for a 13-strikeout two-hitter heading into their IHSA Class 1A regional opener Wednesday.
"We threw a lot of arms out there in preparation for regionals, and every kid I called on came out and did what he was supposed to do," said Dieterich coach Matt Belusko.
Alex Wright got the start and went just one inning, throwing 29 pitches to log three strikeouts but also load the bases. It was the first of two times the Hearts would leave the bags full.
After that, lefty Darin Worman came on to toss four excellent innings.
The senior Parkland recruit fanned six and allowed an unearned run in the fifth when leadoff man Mitch Frey reached on a Mitch Nosbisch error at second base.
Frey, the only EHS batter not to log a strikeout, moved up on No. 9 hitter Kenny Harris' bunt and scored all the way from second after tagging up on left fielder Cody Hinterscher's diving catch of a Derek Meinhart fly ball.
Meinhart didn't think the ball had been caught and kept running the bases after an errant throw from Hinterscher; in the ensuing confusion he was even called safe sliding into third before the play was sorted out.
The crazy play represented Effingham's only scoring of the afternoon after Dieterich picked up three in the top of the third, loading the bases with nobody out on Hearts starter Chad Green before Trey Kistler came on and let all three inherited runners in to score.
Two of those runs were unearned due to a leadoff error on Blake Kuhl's grounder to Curran McNeely at third.
During the current four-game slide, which dates back to the April 28 loss at Teutopolis, EHS has surrendered an uncharacteristic 20 unearned runs. In the previous 22 games, only 22 unearned runs scored against the Hearts.
"We're going to have to see our defense step it up," said EHS coach Chris Fleener, whose team drops to 17-9. "Defense has kept us in games all year, and suddenly we've made blunders all over the place and our bats haven't been able to make up the difference."
Kuhl and Nick Wendling pitched an inning apiece to close out Dieterich's victory, which improves the Maroons to 13-7 heading into Wednesday's semifinal of the Red Hill (Bridgeport) Regional against either Oblong or Red Hill.
Dieterich is a top seed in the South Central Sectional complex while Oblong is No. 8 and Red Hill is No. 7.
No matter who the Maroons play, they are definitely going in on a high note, even though starting third baseman Tyler Campbell's status is up in the air after rolling his ankle rounding second base on a first-inning double.
"Anytime you can beat a big school it's good for morale, without a doubt," said Belusko, who has evolved into Dieterich's head coach after spending the last few seasons as an assistant.
Jamie Van Scyoc, who began the year as the head coach, is now acting as an assistant and will continue to do so next year while focusing all his head coaching efforts on varsity boys' basketball.
"This is especially big going into regionals," Belusko continued. "Effingham is a real talented ballclub. They have the potential to make a run in the postseason, and I hope they do."
Fleener hopes so, too, but only has Saturday's home doubleheader with Centralia left to try and get his troops marching to the right beat before hosting a Class 3A Regional next week.
"It's almost like the beginning of the season again," said Fleener. "We've missed signs and couldn't get bunts down; we missed on some good chances to score in the sixth and then gave away another run in the seventh.
"As a team, this is the worst we've played this year."
Thanks to the washout of last week's City Series against Effngham St. Anthony, the Hearts have played just four games in the last 15 days and haven't won a game since sweeping Robinson in an Apollo Conference doubleheader on April 26.
Every coach talks about wanting his team to play its best ball when regionals roll around, but right now the Hearts are simply looking for a little momentum and some fire from their team leaders as Centralia comes calling before Charleston comes back looking to hand EHS a third loss of the season — this time in the regional semifinal.
"You don't find out how tough your are till you get to the bottom of the barrell," said Fleener. "We're finding out just how tough we are right now, and we have to regain that mental toughness in a hurry."
Dustin White can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 123 or dustin.white@effinghamdailynews.com.
At Paul Smith Field
DIETERICH
-------------------ab----r----h----bi
Kuhl lf------------4----2----1----0
Worman cf-------2----1----0----0
Campbell 3b-----1----0----1----0
Robards rf-------2----1----1----1
Nosbisch 2b-----4----0----1----1
Wendling 1b-----4----0----1----0
Berg dh----------3----0----1----0
Wright p---------3----1----1----0
Zumbahlen c----3----0----1----1
Higgs cr---------0----0----0----0
Hinterscher rf---3----0----0----0
TOTALS--------29----5----8----3
EFFINGHAM
-------------------ab----r----h----bi
Meinhart ss-------2----0----0----1
Cs Green 2b------3----0----0----0
Cd Green p-------4----0----1----0
McNeely 3b-------2----0----0----0
Reedy cf----------0----0----0----0
Kistler cf----------2----0----0----0
Grewell lf---------2----0----0----0
Hecht rf-----------2----0----1----0
Mahaffey 3b------1----0----0----0
Ohnesorge 1b----1----0----0----0
Frey lf-------------2----1----0----0
Harris c-----------1----0----0----0
Gartner cr--------0----0----0----0
TOTALS---------22----1----2----1
Dieterich------003----001----1--------5
Effingham----000----010----0--------1
E — Nosbisch, McNeely. LOB — Dieterich 6, Effingham 8. DP — Dieterich. 2B — Campbell, Chad Green. SB — Kuhl 2, Worman 2, Hecht. SAC — Harris. SF — Meinhart.
PITCHING SUMMARY
--------------------IP----H---R---ER---BB---SO
Dieterich
Wright---------------1----1----0----0----2----3
Worman (W)--------4----1----1----0----1----6
Kuhl-----------------1----0----0----0----2----2
Wendling------------1----0----0----0----0----2
Effingham
Cd Green (L, 2-1)---2----4----3----1----1----3
Kistler----------------4----3----1----1----0----6
McNeely--------------1----1----1----1----1----0
— Green pitched to three batters in the third inning.
WP — Green. PB — Harris 3. T —2:13. U — Douthit (B), Koester (HP).
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