Baseball: Trevor Storck pitches Kaneland past Marmion
Updated: March 24, 2012 7:06PM
Kaneland senior Trevor Storck’s first start of the season seemingly couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start Saturday against Marmion.
Storck drilled the first batter he faced, AJ Friedman, and walked the next two batters, Mitch Sterne and Kyle Kozak.
“We were nervous there for a little bit,” Kaneland coach Brian Aversa said.
But Storck emerged from that inning allowing only an unearned run, and settled in from there. He pitched six strong innings and Kaneland’s offense awoke in the fourth and fifth innings to lead the Knights to a 7-2 nonconference win.
Storck wound allowed two runs, one earned, on three hits, walking three and striking out three in the win.
“It was a shaky start, but with our defense, I’m always confident out there pitching,” Storck said. “I know that if I get the ball over the plate, they’re going to make plays for me. I just have to throw strikes. After I got settled down, I felt a lot better out there.”
After his rough start, Storck retired the next nine hitters in a row before Connor Medernach led off the fourth with a single for Marmion (1-2). He scored on a bases-loaded walk to Chris Simon, but that was all the Cadets managed in the fourth.
It could have been a bigger inning. Andy Young looked as if he was going to score on a sacrifice fly, but Kaneland center fielder Ray Barry threw behind the runner who had ventured off of second base and got him, helping the Knights escape down only 2-0.
“That was huge, getting us out of that inning,” Storck said. “That got me going. That gave us some momentum to come in and start hitting the ball well.”
The bottom of the fourth is when the Knights’ offense awoke against Simon (0-2) and took the lead for good. Timely hitting, aggressive base running and some defensive lapses from Marmion helped the Knights score all seven of their runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Only two of the runs wound up being earned.
Tom Fox singled in a run and scored as part of the three-run fourth. Jordan Jones cracked a two-run single and Quinn Buschbacher singled in a run and scored in the fifth.
“That’s when we started to play really good offensive baseball,” Aversa said. “We got some guys on, got them over, took the extra base, put some pressure on them defensively. Our guys executed.”
The same could not be said of Marmion late in the game, however. The Cadets committed four errors in the loss which led to five unearned runs, handing Simon his second straight loss in a game in which he pitched well.
“On a good day, we’re pretty evenly matched with them,” Marmion coach Dave Rakow said. “But good teams beat you when you make mistakes. When you go back and replay the game in your head, it’s the little things that make the difference. Something that at the time seems small can blow up in your face and become a big inning. That was the case today.”
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