By Ted Waddell
JEFFERSONVILLE — April 23, 2004 – Sullivan West Coach Kurt Scheibe Jr. summed up his team’s Monday afternoon loss to visiting Cornwall in a simple manner.
“We made mistakes and they made us pay,” Scheibe said following the Dragons’ 13-6 victory over the Bulldogs in the non-league contest.
Asked to describe the Bulldogs’ error-filled defense on a dusty afternoon, Scheibe noted that it was “poor.”
“We got beat by a very good team, and they hit the ball hard,” added Scheibe. “They’re starting pitcher was their number three, not even their ace, and he’s quicker than anybody we’ve got.”
The game was decided by a couple of big innings for Cornwall (5-2). The Dragons scored eight runs in the fourth inning and five in the fifth. All of the Dragons’ runs came with two outs in the frame.
In the bottom of the third, John Glassel singled for the Bulldogs. Bill Nordenhold smacked a two-run homer to put SW up 2-0.
Then it was Cornwall’s turn at-bat in the top of the fourth. With two outs, and aided by errors – including, Scheibe noted, “fly balls that dropped but should have been caught” – and ground balls up the middle, the Dragons sent eight players across home plate to take a six-run lead. Steve Wallace, Zach Oliva, Andy Carnright, Eric Cortland, Jesse Gotay, Brandon Thomas, Chris Hecht all scored in the inning, as did Matt Toohey, who smacked a two-run homer.
In the bottom of the fourth, however, the Bulldogs fought back for a couple of runs.
Joe Meyer singled. Steve Daley and Glassel picked up walks. Ed Raum swatted a two-RBI double to make it a 8-4 ballgame.
In the top of the fifth, however, Cornwall racked up five runs.
SW (2-2) scored two runs in the final inning as Berger hit a tree-aided homer (his long fly ball went into the trees, and was ruled a home run).
“We came out in the first inning and hit line drives, jumped ahead of their pitcher,” Cornwall Coach Tommy Fanning said. “We made a couple of adjustments about what we wanted to do at the plate.”
Cortland, who is Cornwall’s number-three hurler, threw about 80 pitches and was followed on the mound by Brian Scott and the team’s ace, Dan Mills, who shut down the Bulldogs’ hopes of a comeback by making short work of their last two batters.
“Lloyd Shaffer did a great job for us [on the mound] in the first three and two-thirds innings,” Scheibe said.
Shaffer was followed by Joe Meyer and Will O’Brien.
“If we play defensively like this, we’re not to win many ball games,” Scheibe added. “We’ve got to step it up defensively, and when our pitcher is struggling, we’ve got to make that play to shut the inning down.”