Braves shut out by Northern

Baseball team loses by a run to Patriots

Friday, May 9, 2008

Starting pitcher Nathan Orlandi allowed just two hits and struck out two Braves in six stellar innings on the mound to pick up his third win of the year for the Patriots. Orlandi threw just 76 pitches on the day.

‘‘Nate’s pitch count was really low, and that means that he was throwing strikes. That’s what we want him to do,” said Northern head coach Marshal Kawecki. ‘‘Our defense held strong and did a good job. We tell our pitchers to work fast, throw strikes, and let the defense do its job.”

While the junior struggled to locate his curveball, Orlandi found success with his fastball and induced eight groundball outs.

Chopticon struggled to put runners on base and failed to sustain potential rallies, as Orlandi picked off two base runners.

‘‘We just need to start hitting the ball. Mentally we are still weak with base running errors,” said Chopticon head coach Steve Williams. ‘‘We should have executed at the plate. Their kid wasn’t overpowering, but he did a nice job of hitting his spots.

‘‘He was just throwing fastballs outside, and we were trying to pull it. If a guy is throwing fastballs outside and you try to pull it, you end of with those groundballs to short.”

In the sixth inning, Orlandi retired the side in order on three straight ground balls to shortstop Bret Blevins.

Northern’s game-winning run, which turned out to be the only run of the game, came in the top of the fourth. Kyle Schade walked and then moved to second on an errant pick-off attempt. Two batters later, the freshman scored on a sacrifice fly by Orlandi.

Shortstop Steven Shorter made the diving catch in shallow left field. His throw to the plate would have been there in time to get Schade had it not been cutoff five feet from the plate by pitcher James Newsome, who tried to make the tag in the baseline.

Northern (8-10, 6-9 SMAC) nearly added an insurance run in the sixth, when senior Colin Brown led off the inning with a double to center, but was thrown out on a well-executed cutoff by Shorter.

‘‘They had been pitching me well all game, but I finally got a pitch to hit, and I drove it,” Brown said on the only extra-base hit in the game. ‘‘Coach was rounding me to come to third, because of something he saw in pregame that the center fielder didn’t have. I tried to stretch it out, but the relay was strong, and they just got me.”

Brown would have potentially scored from second when Blevins followed with a single to right. Chopticon (7-11, 6-10) got out of the sixth-inning jam when Shorter turned a double play on a bouncer up the middle.

The Braves never truly threatened Northern’s one-run lead in the fourth. Tyler Summers reached second with one out after leading off with a single and moving up on a sacrifice bunt by Shorter, but he was the only Chopticon base runner to reach scoring position with less than two outs the entire game.

Northern’s Eric Gronbeck picked up the save when he struck out the side in the seventh inning. Frustrated with the performance of his starters, Williams subbed out his entire lineup in the top of the seventh.

‘‘Our starting guys weren’t getting the job done, so I wanted to let the guys on the bench get a shot at it,” Williams said.

Despite allowing just one run in 3 2⁄3 innings pitched, Newsome was credited with the loss. The senior, who typically closes for Chopticon, struck out three and allowed two walks in just his second outing since severely spraining a finger on his pitching hand.

‘‘It felt a little better today,” Newsome said. ‘‘I didn’t hit my spots as well as I could have. I can’t do as much when I throw with my middle two fingers.”