Oilmen settle for split with Snipes Whiting, Ind. – June 20, 2015 – Going to the last of the fifth inning of Saturday’s second game between the Oilmen and Lexington Snipes, the Oilmen seemed poised to complete a two-game sweep and reclaim a share of first place in the Midwest Collegiate. After capturing a 6-1 win in game one, they were out to a 4-0 lead with nine outs left to get in a seven-inning game. To that point, Brian Jestice (Evansville / Hoffman Estates, Ill.) had been wild yet effective, carrying a no-hitter through four innings.
However, the Snipes bats awoke from their day-long slumber for four runs against Jestice to draw even. Three innings later, Ryan Frye stroked a single into center and Lexington walked off with a 5-4, eight-inning win in the second game of the doubleheader.
Richard Yelnick (Parkland / New Lenox, Ill.) took the loss to drop to 1-2 after allowing the Frye game-winner, which came on the first pitch of an at-bat with one out and the bases loaded. Ian Hall (1-0) notched the win by working a scoreless top of the eighth.
Tyler Sroczynski’s alert style of play paid dividends in the third inning. He advanced to third on an overthrow to the pitcher, then scored on a dropped third strike, breaking for the plate as soon as catcher Cale Robinson released the ball to put out Stefano Belmonte (South Suburban / Munster, Ind.) at first.
“(Sroczynski) is a multifaceted, dynamic guy,” Oilmen manager Enright said. “He hits for power, he runs the bases well. He’s fast. He does all the mechanical things right. The thing that puts him over the top for me is his ability to anticipate what’s going to happen before it happens. He’s a step ahead of everybody else mentally.”
Jimmy Skiff (Purdue Calumet / Dyer, Ind.) tossed 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief to lower his ERA to 1.21 in 12 1/3 innings.
Jestice yielded four runs on four walks and four hits in 4 2/3 innings.
“He didn’t have his good stuff,” Enright said. “He bounced a lot of fastballs. For the second start in a row, he struggled getting a feel for his pitches. They caught on to him as far as falling behind in counts and having to throw fastballs in obvious fastball counts.”
In the first game, Enrique Zamora became the third player in Oilmen history to reach a double-figure strikeout total in a single game. He yielded one run on six hits and fanned 10 while walking none over six innings to pick up the win. The 10 strikeouts matched a franchise single-game record – set by Josh Negele against DuPage in 2012 and matched by Danny Pobereyko against the Zephyrs in 2014.
Zamora (Calumet College / Hammond, Ind.) improved to 2-0 with the win, while Lexington’s Brett Fanning was hit with the defeat to drop to 1-2.
Donovan Chandler (Parkland College / Schererville, Ind.) had two two-out, run-scoring singles in the first game. He reached base in all three plate appearances and picked up the first two RBIs of his Oilmen career. Sroczynski collected three hits in the opener, while Jordan Lewis launched his third home run of the season.
The Oilmen (8-4) finish the day right where they started it – one game in back of DuPage County for first place in the Midwest Collegiate League. Northwest Indiana visits Michigan City on Sunday at 1 p.m. The game can be heard on AM 1230 WJOB and NWIOilmen.com. |