Bruins get to Battlefield’s Scott
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By DAN CLENDANIEL
For the News & Messenger
Published: May 26, 2008
Forest Park scored three runs in the first inning against the Bobcats’ Scott and made those runs hold up for a 4-1 win. The Bruins advanced to the regional semifinal and will host the Colonial Forge-Franklin County winner on Wednesday. Battlefield’s season ended at 16-8.
“Not bad for a team with no pitching,” deadpanned Forest Park coach John Colantuoni after the game. The Bruins lost current collegians Justin Wright and Jake Pruner to graduation last year and were left with several older pitchers with little or no varsity pitching experience for the cur-rent season and were not expected to be a regional contender.
But seniors Schweir and Jonathan Wright took over on the mound and somehow willed the Bru-ins (16-6) to a Cardinal District regular-season title.
Against Battlefield (16-8), Schweir lasted into the seventh inning before giving way to Wright. Schweir started slowly on the mound but stranded five Bobcat baserunners in the first two innings before settling down.
“We left too many people on base early in the game,” said Bobcats coach Matt Caudle. “Evan pitched well. He’s a great player. He just made one or two bad pitches.”
Schwier (7-3) struggled with his control, walking five and hitting two more. But the senior gave up only five singles and struck out ten. Schweir threw numerous balls in the dirt that were effec-tively blocked by catcher Ryan Thomas but left few pitches out over the plate to be mashed by the Bobcats’ main hitters, Scott and Matt Crouse.
Schweir was also able to take full advantage of a generous inside corner from the homeplate um-pire.
“As a hitter,” said Schweir, “I don’t like it when they call that pitch because I’ll pull a lot of them foul. As a pitcher, I was trying to get strikes early in the count and when I saw they (the Bobcats) weren’t swinging at it, I kept putting it there.”
Added Colantuoni, “Not too many high school pitchers like to pitch inside. We were thinking of pulling him in the fifth or sixth inning but he kept getting strikeouts.”
Wright relieved with one out and the tying runner at the plate in the seventh and retired the fi-nal two batters for his third save of the season.
Forest Park touched the James Madison-bound Scott for three runs in the first inning, two on Sean Gilliam’s two-run homer over the center field fence, his fifth of the season. Pinch runner Ja-mie Blackwell later went to third on a single by Taylor Herrell and scored when the relay throw went to the backstop.
Battlefield got their run in the third inning when Matt Robles walked and later scored on a single to center field by Julian Joseph.
The Bruins added an insurance run in the sixth when Schweir doubled with two outs and scored on a single by Wright.
Schweir's double was the first ball allowed out of the infield since the first inning by Scott, who struck out seven and reached 93 MPH on the speed gun at least once in the game.
Battlefield third baseman Danny McDonald saved a run in the fifth inning when his diving stop of a hard hit ball by Thomas prevented a runner from scoring.
“A team like Battlefield is a lot like we were last year, with three strong pitchers,” said Colan-tuoni. “This is a big win for us. We got a couple of key hits and played good defense and put it to-gether for a win.”
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