Brainerd Dispatch: Sports | Brainerd, Minnesota | Brainerd Lakes Area Sports on brainerddispatch.com

Home > SPORTS >

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

E-mail

Forums

Pitching helps Warriors sweep Alex

HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL

By MIKE BIALKA

Sports Editor

Pitching was projected to be a strength of the Brainerd Warriors baseball team.

At the season's halfway point that projection is right.

Senior Trevor Thompson pitched a three-hitter in a 6-3 victory in the first game of a Central Lakes Conference doubleheader Tuesday at Adamson Field. Dan Bendzick, Bill Sather and Nick Anderson combined to beat the Cardinals 2-1 on four hits in the nightcap.

The victories pushed Brainerd to 10-0 overall.

Brainerd needed its pitching to dominate because it mustered only eight hits. Six Alexandria errors led to seven unearned Warrior runs.

Dan Bendzick

"We need to take a little batting practice," Warriors coach Lowell Scearcy said. "We haven't seen many left-handers but coach (Keith) Peterson is throwing batting practice every day.

"It isn't that we're not getting a lot of batting practice. I think, all of a sudden, one game, we're going to come out of it. Hopefully, it will be Thursday (at Fergus Falls)."

The Warriors swept without starting catcher Nate Smolke, who suffered a leg injury in an amateur game Sunday and sat out Tuesday. Matt Lambrecht and Nick Rardin split the catching in his absence.

"Matt is just a good team guy," Scearcy said. "He's around all the time. He's been a catcher in the bullpen. He's probably the best bookkeeper we've ever had. The guy's book is perfect. He did a nice job in the first game.

"Nick has been a good catcher kind of his whole baseball career so we thought we'd have him catch the second game."

First game

Warriors 6, Alexandria 3

Although it wasn't his sharpest outing (he walked four, hit two and threw two wild pitches) Thompson struck out nine and gave up just three hits.

Warriors 6-2, Alexandria 3-1

The key: Brainerd pitchers limited the Cardinals to seven hits in the doubleheader

Conference: Alx 0-9, Brd 9-0

Overall: Alx 0-11, Brd 10-0

Next: Brainerd at Fergus Falls 4 p.m. Thursday.

Kreig Katchmark had the only big hit off Thompson, a two-out, two-run homer in the fifth.

Thompson threw 116 pitches, 77 strikes, and the first pitch for a strike to 22 of 32 batters.

"Trevor is 5-0 and he did have a shutout there if we would have fielded well," Scearcy said. "He went over 100 pitches, which we didn't really want him to, but he did another good job."

Center fielder Tyler Jensen went 3-for-4 with RBI singles in the second and third innings. Right fielder Bronson Shepherd was 2-4 with an RBI single in the first. Travis Whirley had a sacrifice fly in the third.

Alexandria 100 020 0 - 3 3 4

Brainerd 212 010 x - 6 6 2

Alx: Dillon Kelly, Jeff Dirtinger (6) and Dylan Carlson. Brd: Trevor Thompson and Matt Lambrecht. W: Thompson (5-0). L: Kelly.

HR: Alx-Kreig Katchmark. SB: Brd-Bronson Shepherd, Kyle Crocker, Kyle Schaible, Tyler Jensen; Alx-Colin Erickson. Sac: Brd-Travis Whirley, Alx-Jake Whiting, Walker Giroux. RBI: Brd-Shepherd, Jensen 2, Travis Whirley, Alx-Katchmark 2. LOB: Brd 8, Alx 8.

Second game

Warriors 2, Alexandria 1

Alexandria sophomore lefty Colin Erickson and Warriors junior right-hander Dan Bendzick were virtually spotless through four innings, allowing two hits and no runs apiece.

Finally, in the fifth, Brainerd manufactured two unearned runs. Erickson wild pitched in a run and Kyle Crocker followed with a sacrifice fly.

Bendzick left after five innings, with eight strikeouts, one walk, three hits and one earned run. He threw 74 pitches, 45 strikes, and strike one to 10 of 19 Cardinals.

Zach Beireis drove in the only Alexandria run, flaring a two-out RBI single in the fifth.

Sather pitched a 1-2-3 sixth and gave up a leadoff single to Ryan Goraczkowski before picking off Erickson, who was running for Goraczkowski. Sather walked Walker Giroux before Anderson replaced him. Anderson got Jeff Dirtinger to line back to the mound and threw to first to double up Giroux, ending the game.

"We got a pretty good game out of Dan," Scearcy said. "He had pitched three innings at Little Falls and did a good job, but we weren't real sure what we were going to get, but he gave us five innings.

"Bill did the job for an inning. We were going to go to Nick to start the seventh, but Bill had mowed through them so easy in the sixth. Bill was struggling a little bit with his control in the seventh so we figured we would get Nick in there and see if we couldn't get a strikeout. You never know if it's going to turn out (with a double play)."

Brainerd 000 020 0 - 2 2 1

Alexandria 000 010 0 - 1 4 2

Brd: Dan Bendzick, Bill Sather (6), Nick Anderson (7) and Nick Rardin. Alx: Colin Erickson, Tim Erickson (5), Derek Miller (6), Ryan Goraczkowski (7) and Dylan Carlson. W: Bendzick (2-0). L: Erickson.

SB: Brd-Kyle Crocker, Bronson Shepherd; Alx-Walker Giroux. Sac: Brd-Crocker. RBIs: Brd-Crocker, Alx-Zach Beireis. LOB: Brd 8, Alx 3. DP: Brd 1.

MIKE BIALKA may be reached at mike.bialka@brainerddispatch.com and at 855-5861.

Note: Comments are not edited and don't represent the views of The Brainerd Dispatch. Please read our posting rules in the terms of service policy. To report a post that may be inappropriate, click the triangle alert icon.