The Indian River Indians’ 10-2 win over the previously undefeated Dover Senators on April 3 not only extended the team’s three-game win streak but also heaved them over the .500 mark, where they hope to stay for the rest of the season.
Coastal Point • RUSLANA LAMBERT:
Trevor Abbott (1-1) scattered three hits — two of which were in the first inning — walked four and fanned 10, on his way to his first win of the season in a 10-2 win over Dover on April 3.
The Indians have a premium of starting pitching — which any team must have to be successful — but the team has been supplemented by timely hitting by their starting lineup.
Junior southpaw Trevor Abbott (1-1) scattered three hits and four walks, and fanned 10 — nine of them over six innings — for his first win of the season.
Two of Dover’s three hits came in the first inning, in which Brian Esslinger delivered a RBI standup double to the right-centerfield gap to give the Senators a 1-0 lead. Dover extended the lead to 2-0 on a past pitch, which scored Tony Gatto from third base.
Indian River had a golden opportunity to score runs with the bases loaded in the bottom of the first inning but couldn’t because they were trying to hit too hard, according to head coach Howard Smack.
“They were swinging at things that weren’t strikes and trying to jack them out,” he said.
“(Dover pitcher Derrick Smith) did a good job of getting that first strike and getting ahead, but we knew that if we could get him to throw a few more pitches that it would work out. And, fortunately for us, after that they didn’t have much (pitching) after him,” Smack said.
Smith threw only 29 pitches through the first two innings and then saw his pitch count balloon to 54 after the third inning.
Indian River didn’t score that inning, but by the fourth they’d surely seen enough pitches to put some hits together to score runs.
Coastal Point • RUSLANA LAMBERT:
Below, rightfielder Josh Sweetman had five putouts in the win over Dover, ranked second behind Trevor Abbott’s 10 strikeouts.
Bo Wilkinson jump-started a three-run bottom-of-the-fourth rally, despite falling behind two quick outs on only five pitches by Smith. Wilkinson’s standup double over the leftfielder’s head was followed by Mike Casale reaching base after being hit by a pitch and Zach Warner’s 3-1 walk to load the bases.
Smith was throwing more balls than strikes at that point, so Dover head coach Doug Burtscher decided to bring in their No. 1 pitcher, Joey Diana (2-0), in an effort to stop the bleeding, but it would be to no avail.
After falling behind 2-1, Cameron Travalin cleared the bases on a three-RBI standup double of his own, to give the Indians a 3-2 lead from which they would never look back.
Sean Lewis added five more runs in the fifth and sixth innings — scoring two in the fifth and three in the sixth. He was 3-4 on the day with a RBI single and tallied another run in which he and right fielder Josh Sweetman both scored on past pitch during Casale’s third at-bat.
It gave the Indians a 6-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth. Lewis then tacked on two more runs following Thomas Veith’s RBI single on two RBI standup doubles with no outs, to extend the Indians’ lead to 8-2. He scored his fifth run two pitches later, on a past-pitch during Esslinger’s second pitch in relief of Dover’s third pitcher for the day, Danny Gatto.
Casale (1-1) put the icing on the cake with a RBI single to left-centerfield to bring home Sweetman for the 10-2 final score. He had struck out seven and walked only one in a fifth-inning mercy rule 14-0 shutout over Woodbridge on March 29.
Sophomore third baseman Luis Barrientos (1-0) pitched and won his first high school game behind 12 runs of offensive support through his four innings of work. Freshman Cory Showalter and Nick Kmetz (save) combined to work the final three innings and gave up only one earned run.
Barrientos worked the seventh inning of relief of Abbott against Dover and closed the game out in a mere 11 pitches.
“I can’t say enough about my pitching staff right now,” Smack boasted. “Mike Casale, Luis Barrientos, Cory Showalter, Nick Kmetz and Trevor are all pitching extremely well. And I still think that they haven’t even realized their potential.”
Indian River’s home game against Smyrna (April 4) was canceled due to heavy rain mid-day but will be rescheduled for a later date. The Indians will play Newark on April 10 (previously rescheduled) and then travel to Nandua on April 12.