By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Battle Creek, Mich.---The Owens Community College baseball team defeated Muskegon Community College and Macomb Community College, but dropped a pair of games to No. 6 Sinclair Community College over the past two days in the Region XII tournament.
The team's second loss to Sinclair came in the loser's bracket finals, and the team's third place finish in the tournament is the program's best finish since a second place finish in the spring of 2007.
Game 1: Sinclair 8 Owens 1 (Winner's Bracket Semifinal)
The pitching of Sinclair's Alex Anders was too much for the Owens offense in Thursday's winner's bracket semifinal.
Anders went seven of the nine innings and allowed just one hit and three walks while striking out eight. Along with reliever Boomer Lowe, Owens was held to two hits.
Those two hits came from Tyler Byerly (Washington Township/Crown Point, Ind.) and Benjamin Breymier (North Central/Indianapolis, Ind.).
Owens picked up its lone run in the eighth off Lowe when Byerly singled to lead off the inning and came home to score three batters later on a wild pitch.
Sinclair's first three runs came off Owens starter Luke Whelpton (Vauxhall/Brandon, Manitoba, Canada). The sophomore lefty pitched the first four innings and allowed four hits, four runs (one earned) and two walks while striking out two.
Blake Kuszmaul (Bryan/Bryan, Ohio) went the final four innings. His final line included seven hits, four runs, three walks and two strikeouts.
Whelpton fell to 3-6 with the loss.
Game 2: Owens 4 Muskegon 3 in 14 innings (Loser's Bracket Quarterfinal)
Byerly's 14th inning RBI single helped Owens advance in the loser's bracket following the team's disappointing loss to Sinclair earlier in the day.
Owens prevailed in the marathon game thanks to strong pitching performances from Robbie Bekier (Cardinal Stritch/Toledo, Ohio) and Steve Georgic (Airport/Carleton, Mich.).
Bekier went the first six innings and held Muskegon to six hits, two runs and four walks while striking out four. Following a short relief appearance from Jake Schmeltz (Eastwood/Pemberville, Ohio), Georgic went the final 6.1 innings. He allowed just two hits and six walks while striking out seven. He improved to 4-0 with the relief victory.
On the other side, Kyle Vedrode took a tough luck no decision as Muskegon's starter went the first 10 innings. A trio of relievers then pitched the final three plus innings before Byerly's walk-off winner. Joe Kostrezewa ultimately took the loss.
Offensively, Muskegon jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning before Owens scored single runs in the second and third innings to take the lead.
In the second, Jake Norbut (Grove City/Grove City, Ohio) laced an RBI double to left to score Zach Coffield (Eastwood/Bowling Green, Ohio) and tie the game. Jake Weshalek (Shrine Catholic/Royal Oak, Mich.) gave Owens the lead in the next inning with a sacrifice fly that scored Casey Gose (Genoa/Genoa, Ohio), who singled up the middle and stole second to lead off the inning.
Muskegon bounced back and tied the game with a single run in the fifth via a two-out single.
The back-and-forth game continued when Gose's RBI single to left scored Stephen Parker Eisenhower/Shelby Township, Mich.) in the seventh. Muskegon's Robert Spencer then tied the game in the top half of the eighth with a two-out RBI double.
Following the game tying double, Georgic entered in relief and got the final batter of the inning to groundout to short.
Owens had a chance to win the game in the 11th, but stranded the bases loaded. Muskegon then loaded the bases in the next half inning before also stranding them. Following that, neither team had a scoring opportunity until Byerly's game-winner.
Gose (2-for-7, R, RBI), Byerly (2-for-6, RBI), Norbut (2-for-3), Jake Wichlacz (Eisenhower/Macomb, Mich.) (2-for-5, RBI, BB) and Parker (2-for-5, 2 R, BB) all had multiple hit games for Owens.
Adrian Anderson went 4-for-7 from the plate to lead Muskegon.
Game 3: Owens 8 Macomb 6 (Loser's Bracket Semifinal)
A seventh inning rally propeled Owens past Macomb in Friday's loser's bracket semifinal.
Breymier's two-run single in the third, followed by Byerly's two-run double in the fourth gave Owens a 4-2 lead through four.
The lead improved to three when Robbie Walker (Snider/Fort Wayne, Ind.) produced a sacrifice fly in the fifth. Coffield, who singled earlier in the inning, scored on the play.
Owens starter Ardry Mercado (St. Raymond's HS for Boys/Manhattan, N.Y.) ran into trouble in the seventh as Macomb produced a four-run rally to take a 6-5 lead. Schmeltz relieved Mercado midway through the inning, while each pitcher split the runs allowed in the inning.
The Owens offense bounced back in the bottom of the seventh with three runs. Breymier led off the inning with a single. After Coffield sacrificed him to second, Wichlacz walked and Parker singled up the middle to load the bases.
Walker followed with an RBI single before Nolan Rao (Whitmer/Toledo, Ohio) gave Owens the lead for good with a two-run double to right center.
After stranding a runner on first in the eighth, Macomb stranded a runner on second to end the game.
Schmeltz, who went the final 2.1 innings, improved to 1-2 this year with the win in relief. He allowed six hits, two runs and one walk.
Mercado's final line included 6.2 innings, six hits, four runs, four walks and three strikeouts.
Michael Lavoie took the loss for Macomb.
Owens was led offensively by Byerly (2-for-5, 2 RBI), Breymier (2-for-3, R, 2 RBI, 2 BB) and Rao (2-for-4, R, 2 RBI).
Game 4: Sinclair 8 Owens 0 (Loser's Bracket Final)
Playing its fourth game in two days, Owens fell short in a season-ending loss to Sinclair.
Grant Peters (Eastwood/Pemberville, Ohio) started for Owens and went the first 5.2 innings. He allowed seven hits, seven runs (four earned) and four walks while falling to 1-3 this year. Joe Szymanski (Maumee/Maumee, Ohio) pitched the final one-third of an inning. He allowed one hit and one run (zero earned).
On the other side, Brody Basilone went all seven innings. His final line included six hits, two walks and five strikeouts.
Offensively, Owens was led by Coffield, who went 2-for-3. He had one-third of the team's six hits.
Basilone also went 3-for-3, with a run, a walk and an RBI for Sinclair offensively.
Notes
Owens finishes its season at 23-25 overall.
Byerly and Kyle Bennett (Grove City/Grove City, Ohio) each earned Region XII All-Tournament team honors.
Charlie Sipe (Northrop/Fort Wayne, Ind.), who was hit by a pitch in a game Wednesday, did not play either Thursday or Friday. He was replaced by a combination of Walker and Coffield. When Walker didn't play center, Coffield did. It was the first action Coffield has seen at any postion aside from catcher this year.
Gose, a freshman middle infielder, led the team in runs (40), hits (57) and batting average (.354). Sipe, a sophomore outfielder, led Owens in doubles (11), triples (5), home runs (4), RBI (36), stolen bases (16), on base percentage (.448) and slugging percentage (.596).
Bekier and Bennett each led the pitching staff with four wins. Bennett had a team-high 71.2 innings pitched, while he also led all starters with a team-low 4.40 ERA. Bekier led the team in strikeouts with 47, while Whelpton added 44 and Bennett had 42.