The Mount Union Trojans are the kind of team you’d like to have a little time to prepare for.
After all, when you’re playing a perennial District 6 Class A champion, it can’t hurt to have a day or two to work on defensive strategies, hitting approaches and pitching philosophies.
The Tyrone Golden Eagles didn’t have quite that advantage. Their Friday afternoon was originally scheduled as an off-day – not that they needed it. In a month-and-a-half of baseball, the weather had limited Tyrone to just three games.
But still, there could have been better situations than to go to practice Thursday only to discover the make-up date for last Wednesday’s rained-out contest with the Trojans was in 24 hours.
Yet, the way Mount Union played yesterday, it may not have mattered if the Eagles had a week to prepare.
The Trojans slammed 10 hits – three for extra bases – and Mount Union pitchers Sean Dixon and John Martinez whiffed 10 Tyrone batters in a 10-3 MAC victory in Mount Union.
It was Tyrone’s fist loss of the season (2-1 MAC Division 3), while the Trojans improved to 3-2 (3-0).
“We’ve got to do a better job putting the ball in play,” said Tyrone manager Tom Coleman. “We’ve got to take better approaches at the plate. We had a couple good at-bats here and there, but you can’t be sporadic.”
It was tough not to be against Dixon, who went 4 2-3 innings and struck seven to record the victory. He was able to hold Tyrone scoreless until the fifth inning when the Eagles plated three runs to cut the Trojans’ lead to 5-3.
Then Martinez came in to slam the door, striking out three of the seven batters he faced and holding a Tyrone lineup that produced 14 hits on Tuesday to zero hits.
Senior Mike Romano took the loss in his first start. He lasted three innings, surrendering three runs (2 earned) on 3 hits while striking out three.
Romano looked sharp early, retiring the side in order in the first and starting a 1-4-3 double play in the second. But he had trouble in the third.After a Matt Brooks error at third put Brandon Clemens aboard, Martinez doubled on a fly ball to left center that hung in the air and then plopped down between centerfielder Justin Schopp and left fielder Tyler Gillmen.
Romano then had Brent Park in a hole 0-and-2 before hanging a curve ball that Park served over the left field fence to stake the Trojans to a 3-0 lead.
“We had that one bad inning early,” Coleman said. “We had an error here and probably should have caught the fly ball. You take that back and things might have been different.”
Randy Hoover came on in relief and surrendered two more runs in the fourth on RBI singles by Park and Elliot Clemens.
Tyrone rallied with three in the fifth, loading the bases for Tyler Golden, who was hit by a Dixon delivery to score Brock Anders. Randy Hoover scored on a Tyler Gillmen ground out to make it 5-2 and Golden came home when Jamie Levinson walked with the bases full.
Mount Union got one run back in the bottom of the inning when Golden, on in relief of Hoover, walked Cody Hollibaugh with the bases loaded to make it 6-3, and then put the game away with four runs in the sixth.
Two of the four runs were credited to Golden, who walked one and allowed one hit in the frame, and two more went to Gillmen, who walked one and surrendered two straight singles.
Tyrone is scheduled to travel to Vets Field to play Bishop Guilfoyle on Monday for what would be the first of four games in the week.
But pending the snowstorm forecasted for the area, the Eagles may have another wait until they play again.
Coleman would like to see his team get more consistent game action to establish some kind of rhythm for the season.
“I’d like to start playing back-to-back or every other day to give the kids a better look and get things rolling,” said Coleman. “For now we’ll take it week by week and the kids will have to be prepared to play four and maybe five games a week at some points.”
MOUNT UNION 10 TYRONE 3
TYRONE – Schopp, cf, 3-1-1; Golden, 2b-3b-p, 3-0-0; Gillmen, lf-p, 3-0-0; Shaffer, 1b, 2-0-1; Levinson, ss, 1-0-1; Brooks, 3b, 2-0-0; Moore, 2b, 1-0-0; Anders, c, 3-1-0; Romano, p, 0-0-0; Hoover, dh-p-3b, 3-1-1; Hunter, lf-rf, 3-0-0. TOTALS: 24-3-4.
MOUNT UNION – Martinez, 1b-p, 3-1-1; Park, 2b, 4-1-2; Dixon, p-1b, 3-0-1; McConaughey, cr, 0-1-0; Walters, c, 4-0-0; Varner, 3b, 3-2-1; E. Clemens, dh, 3-1-1; Smith, pr, 0-1-0; Burke, rf, 0-0-0; Kolb, lf, 4-2-3; B. Clemens, ss, 3-1-2; Hollibaugh, cf, 1-0-0. TOTALS: 28-10-11.
Score by Innings
TYRONE 000 030 0 – 3- 4- 1
MOUNT UNION 003 214 X – 10-11-1
Individual Stats
2B: Levinson, Martinez, E. Clemens
HR: Park
RBI: Park 4, Kolb 3, B. Clemens, Hollibaugh, Golden, Levinson, Gillmen
SB: Brooks, McConaughey
K: Dixon 7, Martinez 3, Romano 3, Hoover 1, Golden 1
BB: Dixon 3, Hoover 1, Golden 3, Gillmen 1
WP: Dixon LP: Romano
