Martin Oil came from behind twice over the weekend to post a pair of wins in George B. Kelley Federation baseball. With both games played at Bellwood’s Stadium Drive diamond, Martin Oil won both ballgames in their final at bat, besting Park Furniture in a battle of teams with one win each, by a 9-8 count, on Saturday, then rallying for two runs to hand ReMax their first loss of the young season 12-11 in eight innings on Sunday.
On Sunday afternoon, Martin Oil found themselves down a score 11-10 in the bottom of the eighth inning, after the two teams had been knotted 10-10 at the end of the regulation seven innings.
Center fielder Dustin Harris drilled a pitch halfway up the 30-foot high fence in dead left field to score Zach Tomchick with the winning run. Troy Brunner had singled with one out, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored the tying tally on Tomchick’s double.
Martin Oil had also trailed ReMax (5-1) 2-0, 5-2 and 10-7 before finally getting the upper hand on the timely base hit by Harris. Brandon Beech had a big two-run double in the fourth inning for Martin Oil. Jonathan Davilla and Blaze Winterstein had big RBIs and Chad Coho with four hits in five trips to the plate, seemed to on base all day.
“I guess there is one thing you can say for today is, nobody quit,” explained Martin Oil manager Ed Davis. “We are very young. The kids all hung in there. We kicked the ball around and pitching at times wasn’t as great as it has been. But we didn’t quit and I’m really, really proud of them all for that. To overcome the errors and to outscore one of the best teams in the league, was a real tribute to these young kids today.”
Martin Oil batted around to score five runs in the bottom of the fourth to take their only lead of the game. In addition to the two-run double by Beech, Tomchick and Earnie Kelley each singled in a run, and Davilla scored on a wild pitch.
ReMax outhit the winners 15-13 and was able to take advantage of seven Martin Oil errors to keep scoring, but Chris Alley allowed just one run over his final two innings on the mound to pick up the win in relief of Kelley, who tossed the first five innings, before giving way to Alley, who took over with a pair of runners on in the sixth. Alley gave up three runs in the inning, before settling down after ReMax retook the lead 10-7.
“Individually, there were so many biggies in this game that it was unreal,” said Davis. “Earnie (Kelley) had some real big hits. Brandon Beech had a big, big two-RBI double that was huge at that time of the game. Troy Brunner had another nice game at the plate with three walks and a base hit, and running the bases exceptionally well. Tomchick gimped and limped his way around the field with his bad leg. He just gives 125 percent all the time out there. That (Blaze) Winterstein boy is just playing his heart out behind the plate. He’s really hustling, 110 percent, making the throws, stopping everything that he can reach. He hitting is also really coming on, after being hit for almost all the time in high school. Chad Coho, I probably pick on more than any other kid on the team. The kid has so much talent, he doesn’t realize is there, he had four big base hits for us today. Dustin Harris does some weird stuff at times. The previous at bat you would have thought ‘this kid couldn’t hit his way out of a wet paper bag,’ but he clocked one to drive in the winning run. All-in-all, these kids are not quitting, they’re really fighting and I am very proud of them today.”
Greg Webster, Anthony Williams and Nate Williams all had three hits to lead ReMax. A. J. Palazzi and Nate Williams each drove in two runs.
On Saturday, Martin Oil fell behind Park Furniture 7-0, before finally coming alive with six runs in the bottom of the fifth against Park Furniture. Kelley banged a three-run home run for the big blow of the inning. Brunner doubled and Winterstein singled and both scored on Park errors. Both teams began the game with one win. Martin Oil improved to 2-2, while Park Furniture falls to 1-4.
In the seventh inning, in their last chance, trailing 8-6, Brunner singled, but was forced at second by Tomchick for the second out. Coho walked and Winterstein singled to load the bases. Alex Miller beat out an infield single to score Tomchick. Winning pitcher Brian Hostler was hit by a pitch to force in Coho with the tying run. Brandon Beech, hitless in his first four trips to the plate, dribbled the ball to the left side and was able to beat it out for a base hit to score Winterstein with the winning run.
Hostler went the final three innings giving up three runs on four hits with four strikeouts and one walk for the victory.
Garrett Miller led Park with four hits, including a double, scored twice and drove in a run.
Park starting pitcher Chris Sweeney limited Martin Oil to just one hit, a first-inning double by Chris Alley, over the first four innings, before getting shelled in the fifth for four of the six runs scored by Martin Oil in that frame. Rob Shaffer pitched the seventh to take the loss.
“This was a real good game for the morale of the kids,” Davis said following the game. “We got down 7-0 and coming back to win the game 9-8 was really big. Brian Hostler did a nice job coming on in relief, not that Troy did a bad job to start with. Brian just did a nice job closing it down. Earnie had that big home run in the fifth that helped spark the momentum. Troy Brunner had a couple big hits. Blaze Winterstein is really coming into his own. Brian Dougherty got a big walk, on a full count, after being down in the count 0-2, in the seventh that got us going. Alex Miller came off the bench and got a hit that got another run in for us. Then Hostler got on base and Beech beat one out to score the winning run. It was just a total team effort. When we hit, we can play with anybody. Today, it took us five innings today to decide to hit. If they keep hitting, I think we will be in pretty good shape.”
Martin Oil (3-2) is back in action today at Bellwood against Sheetz, with the first pitch set for 6 p.m.
Saturday
Martin Oil 9 Park Furniture 8
Park Furniture – Hamilton, lf, 2-0-0; Burlingame, cr-lf, 1-0-0; Brazile, ss-p, 3-1-1; Shaffer, 3b-p, 3-1-1; Sweeney, p-ss-3b, 5-0-2; McGarvey, cr, 0-2-0; G. Miller, rf, 4-2-4; Bauer, c, 4-0-1; Seymour, cr, 0-1-0; Augustine, 1b, 2-0-0; Shrift, 2b, 3-0-0; High, cf, 4-1-2. TOTALS 32-8-11.
Martin Oil – Beech, 2b-lf, 5-1-1; Kelley, 1b-cf, 4-1-1; Alley, ss, 4-0-1; Brunner, p-1b, 4-1-2; Tomchick, rf, 3-1-0; Coho, 3b, 3-1-1; Dougherty, 3b, 0-1-0; Winterstein, c, 4-2-2; Harris, cf-lf, 3-0-1; A. Miller, 2b, 1-0-1; McDaniel, lf, 1-0-0; Hostler, p, 2-1-0. TOTALS 34-9-10.
Park Furniture 021 221 0 8-11-4.
Martin Oil 000 060 3 11-10-4.
2B: Brazile, Shaffer, Sweeney, G. Miller, Bauer, Alley, Brunner.
HR: Kelley.
RBI: High 2, Brazile, Shaffer, G. Miller, Augustine, Shrift, Kelley 3, Beech 2, A. Miller, Hostler.
SO: Sweeney 4, Brunner 2, Hostler 4.
BB: Brazile 1, Shaffer 2, Brunner 4, Hostler 1.
WP: Hostler LP: Shaffer
Sunday
Martin Oil 12 ReMax 11, 8 inn.
ReMax – Webster, ss-p, 5-3-3; Palazzi, 2b, 6-2-2; Veckov, cf, 4-2-1; Jubeck, lf, 4-1-0; Milliron, p, 0-0-0, Mummert, cr-rf, 2-0-0; Tromm, dh, 3-0-0; A. Williams, rf-p-ss, 5-2-3; N. Williams, 1b, 3-0-3; Sheedy, pr, 0-0-0; Vaughn, pr, 0-0-0; Morris, 3b, 5-0-1; Perehinac, c, 3-0-2; Nagle, cr, 0-1-0. TOTALS 40-11-15.
Martin Oil – Beech, 2b-ss, 4-1-1; Kelley, p-1b, 5-0-2; Dougherty, cr, 0-1-0; Alley, ss-p, 5-0-0; A. Miller, cr, 0-1-0; Brunner, 1b-2b, 2-2-1; Tomchick, rf, 4-1-2; Winterstein, c, 3-0-1; Coho, 3b, 5-2-4; Hostler, cr-pr, 0-2-0; Harris, cf, 4-1-1; McDaniel, lf, 0-0-0; Davilla, dh, 3-1-1. TOTALS 35-12-13.
ReMax 101 035 01 11-15-2.
Martin Oil 002 512 02 12-13-7.
2B: Palazzi, Veckov, Perehinec, Beech, Tomchick.
RBI: Palazzi 2, N. Williams 2, Veckov, A. Williams, Perehenic, Beech 2, Tomchick 2, Kelley, Winterstein, Harris, Davilla.
SO: Milliron 7, Webster 2, Kelley 5, Alley 4.
BB: Milliron 4, A. Williams 1, Webster 1, Kelley 2, Alley 2.
WP: Alley LP: Webster.
