JV baseball
GOSHEN — Opportunity, the saying goes, knocks but once. While the number, as well as the possibility of ringing the doorbell, may be up for debate in baseball, the premise remains true: take advantage of the chances available. Monday, it was the Crusaders doing that in an 18-2, five-inning victory over the Bruins at Bodiker Field.
Fort Wayne went down quietly in the first inning, as a walk erased four pitches later on a fielder's choice provided their only baserunner. Bethany started off auspiciously, as walks drawn by Peter Schrock and Jared Miller were followed by a single from Andy Slagel to load the bases with no outs. Such confidence would soon collapse, however, with two strikeouts and a ground ball leaving the bases full of Bruins. The Crusaders went down 1-2-3 in the ensuing half-inning and the game remained scoreless.
The second inning gave the home team their best shot at the scoreboard, and they responded by reaching base on three-ball counts with the first two hitters and advancing men to the corners with the third. Schrock knocked in a run with a sharp ground ball to center, and a single by Miller reloaded the bases. After Slagel took the payoff pitch for ball four, making the tally 2-0 for the home team, Bethany had a brilliant shot to hang a crooked number in the right field corner. But pitcher Kyle Miller nubbed a dribbler back to his mound counterpart, forcing the wiry, bespectacled shortstop out at home and getting thrown out at first to end the inning. The Crusaders scored without the benefit of a hit on offense—walk, stolen base, error, passed ball—and the Bruins went down quietly, leaving them up 2-1 entering the fourth.
In that inning, the visitors' opportunity knocked. It also rang the bell, stole the gate code, and finally broke through the door, as a walk, single and groundout gave way to ten of the next eleven hitters reaching base before Kyle ceded the rubber to Scott Weaver. All ten would eventually score, along with the two previous hitters, before a flyout got the home team out of the inning. Bethany would get only one hit in the fourth, then give up five runs on three hits, three walks, a wild pitch, and two passed balls in the fifth. Down 18-2, they would get one more crack at the bat before the ten-run rule dropped them to 0-1 on the year.
With leadoff walks from Slagel and Kyle Miller, a distant cousin of the aforementioned giver of chance may have been argued to be mounting the porch. Though Weaver fell victim to an aluminum-induced breeze on a 1-2 pitch, Blake Shetler's ground ball to second forced out Miller but put the Bruins a swing away from halving their gap to the mercy rule. But a dribbler in front of the plate from Josh Plank put the Bruins out of their misery until Thursday's 5:00 first pitch against Lakeland in LaGrange.
(Box Score)
| Crusaders | ab | r | h | bi | Bethany | ab | r | h | bi | |
| Kraft cf | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Schrock ss | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | |
| Jennings 1b-p | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | JMiller c | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Schmitz p | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ASlagel cf-1b | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| CThomas p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | KMiller p-3b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Hinsley p | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Weaver 3b-p | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Klinek p-1b | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Shetler 1b-lf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| DThomas lf | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Plank lf-cf | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Bertsch ss | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Grimes dh | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Shragel 2b | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | Yoder 2b | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Swihart 3b | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | SMiller rf | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Sarrazinz rf | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Totals | 18 | 2 | 5 | 2 | |
| Petersen c | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||||||
| Totals | 28 | 18 | 11 | 15 |
FWC — 001 (12)5 — 18
BCB — 020 00 — 2
E — JMiller 2, Plank, Shetler. DP — Crusaders 1, Bethany 0. LOB — Crusaders 1, Bethany 8. 2B — Shragel, Swihart. 3B — Shragel. SB — Sarrazinz 2, Hinsley, Jennings.
| Crusaders | ip | h | r | er | bb | so |
| Schmitz | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| CThomas | 1.0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Hinsley (W) | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Klinek | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Jennings | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Bethany | ip | h | r | er | bb | so |
| KMiller (L, 0-1) | 3.2 | 8 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 2 |
| Weaver | 1.1 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 1 |
WP — SWeaver. PB — JMiller 3. T — 2:18.
Softball lost to SB Riley 10-0.
B 000 000 0 — 0 1 3
R 222 103 x — 10 9 0
Chelsea Noble (L, 0-1), Mattie Lehman (6) and Ali Hochstetler; C. Fodrody (W; 8 strikeouts) and J. Busfield.
Hits — M. Armstead 2, K. Chapman 2, J. Zukowski 2; Noble. 3B — Zukowski, A. Dainelli. RBI — Armstead 2. Runs — Dainelli 3, Armstead 2, A. Lewis 2.
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