By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Toledo, Ohio---Tyler Huth (Northrop/Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Kyle Bennett (Grove City/Grove City, Ohio) completely dominated Lakeland Community College's batters in back-to-back shutout victories for the Owens Community College baseball team today.
Game 1: Owens 1 Lakeland 0
Huth threw a shutout and tied the single game strikeout record in a dominant game one performance.
After Huth struck out seven of the first nine outs, the Express got the only run they needed in the bottom of the third. Tyler Byerly (Washington Township/Crown Point, Ind.) singled and moved to second on an error on the play from Lakeland's right fielder to start the inning.
Alec Skender (Metamora/Metamora, Ill.) then reached on an error by Lakeland's second baseman to put runners on the corners. With Zach Kazmierski (Whitmer/Toledo, Ohio) at bat, the Express pulled off a double steal with Byerly scoring on a delayed steal.
Huth then closed out the game in record tying fashion. In the fourth, he faced the minimum with two strikeouts. In the fifth, he allowed a two-out single, but struck out the side. In the sixth, he retired the side 1-2-3 with one strikeout. Then, in the seventh, he allowed a leadoff walk, but retired the next three batters including the final out where he ran into foul territory on the first base side to snag a pop out.
In that seventh inning, Huth (3-1) recorded his 14th strikeout, which ties Chris Ward's single game record from 2012. Ward's record setting performance also came against Lakeland.
Skender, Kazmierski, Byerly and Michael Finch (Norwalk/Norwalk, Ohio) picked up the four hits for the Express.
Kyle Tucker (0-1) took the loss for Lakeland. He went all six innings while allowing four hits, one run (zero earned) and one walk with six strikeouts.
Game 2: Owens 4 Lakeland 0
Bennett tossed his third consecutive complete game shutout to start his collegiate career in today's second game.
The lefty allowed only four hits while striking out five and walking none to move to 3-0. More impressively, he has now pitched 27 innings in his collegiate career without giving up an unearned run, which puts him at the top of the NJCAA in that category.
The Express offense scored single runs in each of the first four innings. In the first, Charlie Sipe (Northrop/Fort Wayne, Ind.) scored on a fielder's choice groundout by Kazmierski. Skender followed with a bases loaded single in the second to put the Express up 2-0.
In the third, Tiger Jaso (Lakota/Kansas, Ohio) scored on a wild pitch. In fact, after coming in as a courtesy runner for Austin Legate (Strongsville/Strongsville, Ohio), he advanced one base each on three wild pitches.
In the fourth, Kazmierski reached first on a fielding error by Lakeland's second baseman and Sipe scored on the play.
Sipe finished 0-for-1, but had three walks and two runs, while Skender, Legate, Finch and Marcus Rozsa (All Saints Secondary/Whitby, Ontario, Canada) produced one hit apiece. Skender and Kazmierski picked up one RBI apiece.
Scott Wood (0-2) took the loss for Lakeland. He went all six innings while allowing four hits, four runs (three earned) and four walks with one strikeout.
Wrap Up
The Express are now 8-12 overall and 3-3 in Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) play, while Lakeland falls to 6-13 overall and 1-3 in OCCAC play. Both teams will play twice more tomorrow beginning at 12 p.m.
Notes
The Express offense only had five runs and eight hits combined in both games, but Huth and Bennett combined for 14 innings, zero runs, six hits and two walks.