By Dustin Dopirak | For the Daily Journal
The story of Greenwood Christian’s baseball losses so far this season has been big innings for the opposition that the Cougars failed to close the floodgates on. On several occasions they’ve failed to make the one play that would have kept deficits manageable and found themselves in holes they couldn’t dig out of.
“We have played some really good teams this year, and we have given up 10 runs in one inning, eight runs in one inning, seven runs in one inning,” GCA coach Doug Hagist said. “All because we were not able to overcome one little thing.”
That’s why the most important play of the Cougars’ 11-2 win at Edinburgh on Tuesday came in the game’s first inning.
Greenwood Christian (3-7) had taken control with a three-run double by sophomore designated hitter Trey Harney III in the top of the first, but Edinburgh was threatening to match. Edinburgh pitcher Ian Buchanan had singled in a run and given the Lancers runners on first and second with one out.
However, GCA sophomore right-hander Isaac Vessely followed that by striking out first baseman Landen Burton swinging, and GCA freshman catcher Colton Flint turned a strike-’em-out-throw-’em-out double play by catching Edinburgh’s Gabe Bennett stealing to end the inning.
The crisis was averted, and Vessely cruised from there.
“My catcher has a great arm,” Vessely said. “It let me know that he’s got my back.”
Vessely gave up three singles in the first, but Edinburgh had a hard time getting anything off of him after that. He got swings and misses on a high fastball and kept his breaking ball in the strike zone, and the Lancers didn’t get much in the way of hard contact. Edinburgh junior second baseman Noah Detling tripled to lead off the third and scored on a sacrifice fly by Bennett, but that was the only run the Lancers scored the rest of the way.
From the second inning until the seventh, Vessely never faced more than four batters in an inning, scattering four hits with three of them being singles from the second inning on.
Vessely didn’t walk a batter until the seventh inning and struck out 10.
“I was just trying to throw strikes and not walk them,” Vessely said. “My curveball was really working well. I didn’t throw that many change-ups, but when I needed to get a strikeout I was able to throw that high fastball really well.
And while Vessely cruised, GCA’s lineup teed off.
It took much of the first inning for the Cougars to find their timing against Buchanan, who mixed off-speed pitches and breaking balls well, but after Harney’s double they found a groove against him. GCA scored two runs in the second on RBI singles by freshman shortstop Charile Overton and sophomore second baseman Jake Potter. They tacked on three more in the fourth on RBI singles by senior center fielder Jake Simons and Harney and a run-scoring double by Potter.
In the fifth, Simons drove in two more runs with a single and Potter drove in another run with a single in the seventh. Potter finished 3 for 4 with three RBIs and two runs scored. Harney was 2 for 4 with four RBIs.
“They had to adjust,” Hagist said. “They had to be disciplined, be patient enough to walk and then be patient enough to go after the right ball and get us on the scoreboard.”
