Tigers pounce on Eagles early

LENOX — Lenox baseball is known for putting pressure on the opposing defense with bunts, stolen bases and hit-and-run plays.

Tiger coach Tyler Peterson played in two state championship games for longtime Lenox coach Steve Westphal, who had a large bag of tricks in his “small ball” repertoire.

But, the formula was a little different Tuesday with run-scoring drives in the gaps being the norm.

After a recent session working with Westphal, Peterson’s former mentor, at the Southwestern Community College field, and some extra work on making good contact in batting practice, the Tigers unleashed their aggressive approach at the plate in a 15-0 home victory over East Union Tuesday night.

Winning pitcher Kaleb Anderson helped his own cause with two doubles. Left fielder Aaron Schmitz and third baseman Derek Venteicher each drove in a pair of runs on two hits. First baseman Colton Hogan also had a pair of hits.

The challenge for East Union became even greater with six fielding errors and eight Tigers reaching base either on walks or being hit by pitches.

“It was good to see us going up there and taking some good cuts, and not necessarily looking for walks,” Peterson said. “After failing behind Wayne last night 5-1 and coming back to beat them late, we talked today about coming in with a sense of urgency. We came out ready to hit it hard.”

The Tigers scored six runs on three hits and three East Union errors in the first inning to give Anderson all the support he needed in gaining his first victory of the season.

“I hadn’t pitched much for a little while and I was just trying to get back in the groove of things,” said Anderson, who allowed only two hits and one walk while gaining three strikeouts. “I don’t throw very hard, so I just try to keep batters off balance with a little curveball here and there. This year I started throwing a little sidearm curve, too.”

The Eagles could have extended the game into at least the fifth inning, trailing 11-0, but two ground balls were misplayed with two outs in the fourth, which sent the Tiger runs across for the 15-run mercy rule in four innings.

“We make a couple of mistakes and we get frustrated and start hanging our heads,” East Union coach Dave Campbell said. “We need to keep our heads up and just play ball. Anderson is a good pitcher for them, but we have some guys who should be able to hit that. It hurts us to have three players out. (Mason) Gossman is out with a broken hand and that really hurts our pitching situation. Our right fielder is on a mission trip and our left fielder has a bad hamstring and can’t play in the field for us.”

Campbell praised the performance of starting pitcher Brayden Martinez, but with the Eagles unable to mount an offensive rally to get back into contention, he pulled his junior starter before reaching 65 pitches and the required two days rest under the state’s new pitch count rule.

“Brayden was doing a nice job, but we still have two more games this week,” Campbell said. “Sometimes you just have to decide what’s best for the team in the games coming up if you’re having trouble scoring anything in this one.”

UP NEXT — Lenox (12-4, 7-4 POI) plays at Fremont-Mills tonight before getting back into Pride of Iowa Conference play Thursday at Corning against Southwest Valley. East Union (3-10, 1-10) hosts Nodaway Valley Thursday and travels to Central Decatur on Friday.

Lenox 15, East Union 0

R H E

EU 000 0 — 0 2 6

Len 603 6 — 15 10 1

EU: Brayden Martinez 3K 3BB 1 HBP, Dillon Weis (3) )K 2BB 2 HBP, Kyle Campbell (4) 0K 0BB and Joshua Hardy. L: Kaleb Anderson 3K 1BB and Dawson Tullberg. W — Anderson (1-0). L— Martinez (0-3). HR — none. 3B — none. 2B — EU: Martinez. L: Anderson 2. RBI — L: Aaron Schmitz 2, Derek Venteicher 2, Jared Hensley 1, Anderson 1, Colton Hogan 1, Colton Gordon 1, Zach Schmitz 1. Multiple hitters — L: Anderson 2, A. Schmitz 2, Derek Venteicher 2, Hogan 2.