Nisle two-bagger the key blow as Oilmen defeat Lakers Nisle two-bagger the key blow as Oilmen defeat Lakers FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Whiting, Ind. – June 29, 2016 – When the Lakers issued walks on Wednesday night, the Oilmen hitters made sure they didn’t walk away empty handed. The Oilmen made Michigan City starter Jerome Burton pay for his wildness in a 9-3 Oilmen win. NWI lefty Luke Jaksich (St. Joseph’s College / St. John, Ind.) issued seven walks, but he scattered them throughout his six-inning outing and only two came around to score. Conversely, the first six Oilmen runs of the game were scored by runners who had reached base via either a base on balls or free pass. Burton walked eight in his five-inning start, allowing seven runs (five earned) on four hits to drop to 0-1. “It’s backbreaking, because they’ll go back and look at the game and say they were the ones who put us in position to score runs,” Oilmen manager Adam Enright said. “When you’re on the losing end of that, it was kind of self-inflicted as far as putting yourself in a position to lose.” The pivotal hit in the game came in the third inning, when Alex Nisle (St. Joseph’s College / St. John, Ind.) cracked a double off the brick wall and gave the Oilmen a 3-1 lead. Nisle finished with two hits to climb his average to a new season high of .268. “I talked him through one mechanical thing as far as the path of his bat when he swings,” Enright said. “Your window of getting hits and the timing of your swing has to be absolutely perfect if you’re doing it the way he was. This mechanical change gave him a lot more room for error.” Jaksich picked up the win to boost his mark to 2-0 while allowing three runs (two earned) on four hits and six strikeouts in six innings. “There was a little more adrenaline and a bigger crowd than he’s used to coming out of high school,” Enright said. “He looked a little rushed as opposed to a fluid tempo in his deliver to the plate. I think the biggest attribute of a pitcher is a guy who doesn’t feel great, doesn’t have his good stuff, but he goes out there and competes and puts his team in a position to win. He did that.” After the Lakers grabbed an unearned run in the top of the first, the Oilmen responded courtesy of a run-scoring single by Zack Jones (Trinity Christian / Norridge, Ill.), who had two hits and drove in three. The Oilmen broke it open with four in the fourth, and for good measure added two in the eighth including a run-scoring single by Tommy Szczasny (Northern Illinois / Tinley Park, Ill.). The Lakers received a two-hit performance from Mark Dye. The Oilmen victory spoiled the Lakers debut of former Oilmen player Alec Olund, who went 1-for-5. After a lackluster start to the year, things seems to be coming together for Northwest Indiana. “Everybody has settled in and we’ve established roles,” Enright said. “We’ve got a good sense of what everybody brings to the table. Hopefully we’ve got it rolling pretty well; it’s just a matter of us being mentally and physically prepared to play every day.”
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