Solid pitching aids Comets in win over Guerin Catholic

Posted: Thursday, April 22, 2010 11:18 pm | Updated: 12:07 am, Fri Apr 23, 2010.

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Posted on April 22, 2010

* padelsen

by Peter Adelsen

GREENTOWN - The Eastern Comets hitting and pitching came out big in its win over Guerin Catholic Golden Eagles 5-2 on Thursday.

Eastern sophomore Bryce Rainey pitched five innings in the win. He struck out six batters, allowed five hits and walked one batter.

With two outs in the bottom of the first inning, Eastern senior Michael Moreno got the Comets on the board with a homerun off of Golden Eagles sophmore pitcher Colin Shanteau to go up 1-0.

"With the homerun in the first inning, that kind of set the tone on that pitcher can be hit," Eastern coach Steve Swinson said.

The Comets added another run in the third inning when senior Tyler Harnish singled to send senior Brandon Hainlen home. Hainlen earlier reached on a single.

The Eastern defense stepped up in the fourth inning as they forced a double play off of junior Phil Pecaroro's ground ball. Sophomore Adam Hufford, the next batter, flied out to right field to end the inning.

In the fifth inning, Guerin Catholic posed its greatest threat to the Comets. Rainey walked senior Aaron Beaver, senior Tim McHugh reached on an error and sophomore Adam Neidlinger reached first base to load the bases. With the bases loaded, Rainey calmed down and struck out the next two Golden Eagles batters, junior Tony Zunica and junior Matt Pletzke, to end the inning and the threat.

In the bottom half of the fifth inning, the Comets got more breathing room as senior Lee Beachy RBI singled to send Moreno home, who earlier got a base hit, to increase the Comet lead to 3-0.

The Comets added two more runs in the sixth inning with RBIs from Hainlen and Harnish sending home senior Ian Beachy and Hainlen, respectively, to go up 5-0.

In the top of the seventh, Guerin Catholic made another attempt at threatening the Comets. Golden Eagles Neidlinger scored from third base on sophomore relief pitcher Kile Nolder's wild pitch and later junior Tony Zunica singled to bring home senior Tim McHugh, but this threat was over when Nolder struck out Pletzke. Guerin Catholic scored two runs, but it was not enough as the Comets won 5-2.

"I can't say enough about our pitching," Swinson said. "Our pitching has been just outstanding all week long and again tonight with Bryce Rainey starting throwing 5 innings and Kile Nolder throwing the last two, just tremendous."

Eastern (6-2) next plays at home against Tri-Central at 5 p.m. on Saturday. Guerin Catholic (5-6) next plays at the Heritage Christian Invite on Saturday.

Scores by inning:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E

Guerin Catholic 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 8 0

Eastern 1 0 1 0 1 2 X 5 12 1

Hitting statistics:

Guerin Catholic-

9. McHugh 0/4 (R)

3. Neidlinger 4/4 (R)

23. Zunica 2/4 (RBI)

>10. Haas 0/0

22. Pletzke 0/4

7. Shanteau 0/1 (HBP)

>17. Fettig 0/0 (BB)

12. Pecaroro 0/3

21. Hufford 1/3

45. Beaver 0/1 (BB)

>5. Highsmith 0/1

2. Kennedy 1/3

Eastern-

7. Hainlen 3/4 (RBI, 2R)

21. Horner 0/3 (BB)

17. Moreno 2/3 (HR, R, BB)

16. Harnish 2/4 (2B, 2 RBI)

24. Nolder 1/3

>2. Myers 0/1

19. Keith 0/3

6. Lee Beachy 1/3 (RBI)

5. Ian Beachy 3/3 (R, SB)

13. Courter 0/3