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glencoeanchor.com sports<br />
the glencoe anchor | April 18, 2019 | 27<br />
Baseball<br />
Small ball carries New<br />
Trier past Highland Park<br />
David Jaffe<br />
Freelance Reporter<br />
When runners are in<br />
scoring position, most<br />
baseball players would like<br />
to drive them in with a big<br />
hit.<br />
But being able to bring<br />
runners in on sacrifice flies<br />
or on groundouts is just as<br />
important a way for a baseball<br />
team to score runs.<br />
Tuesday, April 9, New<br />
Trier took a big step forward<br />
in that regard winning<br />
their opening Central Suburban<br />
League conference<br />
game of the season 11-2<br />
over Highland Park.<br />
The visiting Trevians<br />
put up six runs in the top<br />
of the first inning, initially<br />
through small ball and then<br />
with the long ball.<br />
Patrick Jodloman was hit<br />
by a pitch with the bases<br />
loaded putting New Trier<br />
(6-4) on the board. He was<br />
the third straight batter hit<br />
by a pitch. Sam Harvey’s<br />
sacrifice fly increased the<br />
lead to 2-0 and then an infield<br />
hit by Donald Stricklin<br />
added another run.<br />
“We did a good job<br />
moving runners over and<br />
bringing them home,” New<br />
Trier coach Mike Napoleon<br />
said. “We’ve struggled to<br />
this point bringing runners<br />
in the way we did today.<br />
So we’ve been preaching<br />
about how important<br />
scoring runs on outs can<br />
be. We also didn’t strike<br />
out much today and didn’t<br />
have many popups. So having<br />
those things along with<br />
some miscues on their side<br />
allowed us to take advantage<br />
when we had runners<br />
on base.”<br />
New Trier didn’t score<br />
just on the fundamental<br />
plays either. Eddie Harvey<br />
broke the game open in the<br />
first crushing a three-run<br />
home run to left field.<br />
“I had been battling and<br />
fouling balls off in the atbat,”<br />
Eddie Harvey said. “I<br />
got a pitch that I was able<br />
to stay on a little longer<br />
and once I got a hold of it, I<br />
could tell it was gone.”<br />
John Miller’s RBI<br />
groundout allowed New<br />
Trier to tack on another<br />
run in the second. Jodloman’s<br />
RBI double made it<br />
8-0 in the fourth. The variety<br />
of ways the Trevians<br />
brought in runs continued<br />
in the fifth as Brett Johnson<br />
reached on an error<br />
that scored Stricklin. Eddie<br />
Harvey then scored when<br />
Henry Pelinski grounded<br />
into a double play.<br />
“Honestly it wasn’t just<br />
the fact that we brought<br />
runners in through a variety<br />
of ways, it was that we kept<br />
it up the whole game, even<br />
after the first inning,” Eddie<br />
Harvey said. “We put<br />
ourselves in scoring position<br />
so if we had flyouts<br />
or groundouts, we still had<br />
a chance at adding more<br />
runs.”<br />
It also wasn’t just the offense<br />
that stood out. Pitcher<br />
Andrew Kost had a no-hitter<br />
through four-and two-thirds<br />
innings before the Giants’<br />
Jason Bernstein broke it up<br />
with an infield hit. Sammy<br />
Dubin put Highland Park<br />
on the board with a two-run<br />
single. But Kost only allowed<br />
three hits and walked<br />
two with five strikeouts<br />
through five innings.<br />
“Andrew was locked in<br />
and he kept getting better as<br />
the game went on,” Eddie<br />
Harvey said. “He’s a very<br />
strong pitcher and someone<br />
we’ve been able to rely on<br />
when he’s out there.”<br />
“He got out of some situations<br />
early in the game and<br />
then in the middle innings<br />
he was great,” Napoleon<br />
said. “He almost had a nohitter.<br />
It was a really strong<br />
performance. Our pitching<br />
and defense have led us and<br />
hopefully we took a step<br />
forward today on offense<br />
with how we were able to<br />
bring in runners.”<br />
Highland Park (5-6) got<br />
in a big early hole. But the<br />
Giants appeared to settle<br />
down for a couple of innings.<br />
The issue for the Giants<br />
is being able to string<br />
together strong innings.<br />
“We’ll have a couple of<br />
innings both defensively<br />
and at the plate where<br />
we’re playing well. But we<br />
haven’t really been able<br />
to keep that going for the<br />
entire game,” Highland<br />
Park coach Jason Newburger<br />
said. “You have to<br />
be consistent if you want to<br />
compete in a conference as<br />
good as this one.”<br />
Offensively for a good<br />
portion of the game, the Giants<br />
were able to get some<br />
runners on but couldn’t<br />
move them over.<br />
“We had a lot of innings<br />
where we stung the baseball<br />
really hard but just<br />
hit it in the wrong spots,”<br />
Newburger said. “I liked<br />
that we kept fighting and<br />
were able to put a couple<br />
of runs up late. The last inning<br />
Jeremy (Frankel) had<br />
a hard hit but we got unfortunate<br />
it was a lineout<br />
that turned into a double<br />
play. It still comes down<br />
to consistency though and<br />
the third and fourth innings<br />
we struck out five times.<br />
We need to string together<br />
good innings.”<br />
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