Baseball Page

March 23, 2006  1 2 3 4 5 6 R H E
Plano Reapers   2 0 0 0 1 1 4 4 2

Yorkville Foxes 0 3 1 0 0 0 7 8 2

From the Ottawa Times

YORKVILLE 7, PLANO 4

At Yorkville, the Reapers dropped their season opener.

Plano scored two runs in the top of the first inning, but The Foxes put three runs apiece in the second and fifth innings.

Matt Priesman, Shawn Gwilt (triple, RBI), Josh O'Hara and Alex Jensen all had one hit each for the Reapers. Nick Preston took the loss on the mound.

PLANO (4) -- Ferguson 1-0-0-0, Priesman cf 2-1-1-0, Day cf 1-0-0-0, Bott ss 2-1-0-0, Gwilt 1b 3-1-1-1, Preston p 2-0-0-0, O'Hara 3-1-1-0, LeMaster 3b 0-0-0-0, Jensen lf 2-0-1-1, Brown lf 2-0-0-0, Wright 2b 2-0-0-0. Totals 20-4-4-2.

YORKVILLE (7) -- Blank cf 3-0-0-0, Mendoza 2b 3-1-1-0, Ford rf 3-0-1-0, Horn ss 2-1-0-0, Tripp c 3-1-2-1, Kropp p 2-1-1-2, Sells dh 3-1-2-2, Bryja 3b 3-1-1-0, Anderson 1b 1-0-0-0, Jones 2b 1-0-0-0. Totals 24-7-8-5.

Plano (0-1) 200 011 -- 4

Yorkville   031 030 -- 7

E -- Plano 2, Yorkville 2. LOB -- Plano 3, Yorkville 4. 2B -- Kropp, Sells. 3B -- Gwilt, Ford. HR -- Tripp. SB -- Day, Gwilt, Preston, Mendoza. K -- Preston 3, Kropp 3, Medoza 5. BB -- Preston 2, Kropp 5, Mendoza 0. WP -- Mendoza. LP -- Preston (0-1).

Kropp helps lift Foxes in season opener

YORKVILLE — Cold skies and an early deficit were not enough to keep Yorkville from taking its season opener 7-4 over Plano at home on Thursday.

Yorkville pitcher Matt Kropp (3 innings) gave up two runs in the first inning, but later scored two of his own and knocked in two more, to help teammate Anthony Mendoza to his first victory.

Mendoza pitched well for the last 2.2 innings, striking out five Reapers and allowing only one earned run. Plano was able to throw a scare into the Foxes in the fifth inning, when a balk and an error allowed Matt Priesman to score, leaving the Reapers down by only a run.

Yorkville responded immediately in its half of the inning, with Kropp and David Sells hitting back to back doubles, scoring three runs and giving the Foxes the lead for good.

"We played well for our first game," Yorkville coach Eric Miller said.

"We had some good hitting from personnel that should be hitting well, they did a good job and hopefully they will continue."

Miller said he was also "very impressed" with his team's pitching, and proud of his team's overall effort.

"Right now I feel good but we still have a lot of work ahead of us," he said.

After the opener, Miller talked about how his team looks at the season, and let on that Yorkville hopes to keep the wins coming.

Listing the team's goals, Miller said the Foxes are striving to win 20 games this season. In addition, Miller said Yorkville hopes to be in the running for the Suburban Prairie North title, a "big chore" according to Miller, and go on to play for a regional title.

"These kids feel they're up to it, and we'll be able to make the challenge work for us," Miller said.

By looking forward to whoever they play next, and evaluating and improving his team as games go by, Miller said he is hoping for continued success.

"I think we've got a great group of guys ... they are excitable, they love baseball and couldn't wait to be out here to play their first game. I'm excited because of the fact that these kids really want to be here."

Other Area Scores

GENEVA 3, SANDWICH 2 (6 inn).

At Geneva, the non-conference game was tied at 1-1 until Geneva plated two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Lance Futrell (two runs), T.C. Blanford (RBI) and Brendan Ament all singled to account for the three Sandwich hits. Matt Cervantes suffered the loss on the mound.

HALL 8, SENECA 4

At Spring Valley, the Fighting Irish dropped a non-conference road contest to the Red Devils.

"This was a close game at the beginning, but we struck out many times with runners in scoring position (13 left on base)," Seneca coach Kirk Houchin said. "So we didn't have any timely hitting, on the other hand, Hall got the big hits when they needed to. They were definitely the better team tonight."

Zack Sinnott went 2-for-2 to lead the Irish offense. Losing pitcher Seth Hobbs tripled and Chad Knapp doubled.

PREP BASEBALL: Making history - Newark tops Marquette first time since 1995

Newark -- expected by many Little Ten Conference coaches to make a run at the LTC championship -- accomplished a feat that no Norseman squad had done in 11 years on Wednesday.

Behind a strong effort on the mound by junior ace pitcher Kyle Janssen, Newark defeated the Marquette Crusaders 6-2 at Masinelli Field in the season opener for both schools. The win marked the first time the Norseman have beaten Marquette since 1995.

Janssen went the distance, throwing 120 pitches and allowing no earned runs while surrendering two hits, to go along with 11 strikeouts (including seven out of the last 13 batters he faced over the final four innings) and two walks to record the complete game win.

"Marquette has a great program and this is just an absolutely huge win for us," Newark coach D.J. Cocks said. "The last three weeks, we've been shooting for them. This win shows that we can hang with anyone on our schedule, and if we play like we did today, we'll make some noise this season.

"Kyle was phenomenal and I couldn't have asked for anything more from him. He threw a lot more pitches than I would've liked, and if he got into any trouble I would've taken him out, but he didn't."

The Norseman got on the board in the top of third inning. With runners on second and third with two outs, Marquette pitcher Levi Reeder decided to intentionally walk Newark cleanup hitter Mitch Dunlap to load the bases and bring up Adam Marcley. Marcley proceeded to drive in both Brian McGrath and Patrick Quanteck with a single on an 0-2 pitch. Dunlap later scored on a wild pitch to give the Norseman a 3-0 lead.

In the bottom of the frame, Tom McConnaughhay drove home John Kuhn and J.C. Thumm with a double down the right field line to cut the Crusaders' deficit to 3-2.

But the following inning, Newark plated another three runs. Andrew Monkemeyer came in to score on a double play, while McGrath and Quanteck each crossed the plate on run-scoring singles by Janssen and Dunlap to extend the margin to 6-2.

"You've got to give credit to their pitcher, he did a helluva job and didn't wear down," Marquette coach Todd Hopkins said. "I thought our pitchers did well only allowing two earned runs. Our defense was a little shaky, and we didn't hit, but we'll hit, it'll come around."

Monkemeyer went 3-for-3 with two doubles to lead the Norseman offense. Dunlap added two hits, including a double. McConnaughhay had a double and two runs-batted-in for the Crusaders. Blake Cottingham had the other Marquette hit. Reeder was charged with the loss.