04-26-2013, 11:14 PM
Despite dropping their third game this week on Friday night, Lewis County baseball coach Keith Prater remains upbeat and feels his club will be just fine.
"One of our goals is to not lose a week and we can still even things up tomorrow if we win a couple of games," Prater said. "We want to play good teams and when you do that, you gotta play on consecutive days and playing six games in six days can be tough on your pitching staff. Cory Christy was scheduled to pitch tonight but he's still sore, so we went with Brent Wampler and he pitched OK. Ashland just came out and played well and we didn't. They hit the ball well and we did too at times, but we just hit it right at people. But (Cameron) Fritz pitched well for them, he threw strikes and kept the ball down.
"We gelled last year in the middle of the season and went on a 14-game winning streak and we're hoping we gel this year in late May for the district and region. I'm fortunate to have a great bunch of kids and they want to play well and they know they can play better too."
Fritz, a junior right-hander, scattered three hits and silenced the Lewis bats after the Lions scored a run in the first to lead the Tomcats to their sixth consecutive victory, a 6-1 win on a cool evening at the Lewis ball park.
"Cameron's our everyday catcher but he pitched very well tonight," said Ashland Blazer coach Jeff Wilcox. "We try to get our pitchers to get ahead in the count and he did that tonight. I was glad to see Cameron come up with a performance like that against a great program like Lewis."
Each team scored a single run in the opening frame in similar fashion.
Ashland's Logan Salow opened the game with a slicing double into the left-center field gap, swiped third, and one out later, scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Aaron Elam.
The Lions answered in the bottom of the first when Sammy Holder led off with a line-drive two-base hit to left-center, advanced to third on a passed ball and was plated on a sac fly to center by Grant Liles.
Fritz allowed just one Lewis baserunner to reach third the rest of the evening and set down 10 batters in a row after Liles doubled to right-center in the third inning. The only other Lewis hit was an infield single by Holder just prior to Liles' two-bagger, but Holder was cut down at second base on an attempted steal by Ashland catcher Pete Mullins.
The Tomcats put two more runs on the board in the second to go ahead to stay.
After Wampler fanned Evan Yongue, Jake Hall reached on an infield single and stole second before Wampler plunked Austin Kelley with a pitch. After a flyout for the second out, Salow struck again. The left-handed hitting senior center fielder drove a pitch to right field that one-hopped the fence and plated Hall and Kelley.
In the third, Ashland senior third baseman Cade O'Bryan led off the inning with a home run just inside the right field foul pole and the Tomcats added two more runs in the fourth.
Kelley led off the frame with an infield single, advanced to second when Wampler hit Evan Cox with a pitch, advanced to third on Salow's forceout and scored on a wild pitch. Salow later scored the second run of the frame on a sacrifice fly to left by Jared Slone.
Meanwhile, Fritz was breezing along. He walked just one batter and struck out five and his coach was also pleased with how the team played behind him, as well as the offensive production.
"We kicked some around earlier in the year and we want to make the routine plays. We're still working at it but we made some good plays tonight," Wilcox said. "We know they didn't pitch their best pitcher tonight and we didn't either but we did hit well. Logan's been hitting great in this recent stretch and the big boy (O'Bryan) is very capable of doing what he did tonight with that home run."
The Lions (14-7) play Holmes at Nicholas County on Saturday morning and meet the Bluejackets in the afternoon before returning home to face Mason County next Tuesday.
Ashland 121 200 0 --6 9 2
Lewis 100 000 0 --1 3 3
WP: Fritz, LP: Wampler.
Hitting leaders: AB: Salow 3-5, 2 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI; Stone RBI; O'Bryan 2-3, HR, R, RBI; Elam 1-3, RBI; Hall 2-4, R; Kelley 1-2, 2 R. LC: Holder 2-3, 2B, R; Liles 1-2, RBI.
Records: Ashland Blazer 13-7, Lewis County 14-8
"One of our goals is to not lose a week and we can still even things up tomorrow if we win a couple of games," Prater said. "We want to play good teams and when you do that, you gotta play on consecutive days and playing six games in six days can be tough on your pitching staff. Cory Christy was scheduled to pitch tonight but he's still sore, so we went with Brent Wampler and he pitched OK. Ashland just came out and played well and we didn't. They hit the ball well and we did too at times, but we just hit it right at people. But (Cameron) Fritz pitched well for them, he threw strikes and kept the ball down.
"We gelled last year in the middle of the season and went on a 14-game winning streak and we're hoping we gel this year in late May for the district and region. I'm fortunate to have a great bunch of kids and they want to play well and they know they can play better too."
Fritz, a junior right-hander, scattered three hits and silenced the Lewis bats after the Lions scored a run in the first to lead the Tomcats to their sixth consecutive victory, a 6-1 win on a cool evening at the Lewis ball park.
"Cameron's our everyday catcher but he pitched very well tonight," said Ashland Blazer coach Jeff Wilcox. "We try to get our pitchers to get ahead in the count and he did that tonight. I was glad to see Cameron come up with a performance like that against a great program like Lewis."
Each team scored a single run in the opening frame in similar fashion.
Ashland's Logan Salow opened the game with a slicing double into the left-center field gap, swiped third, and one out later, scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Aaron Elam.
The Lions answered in the bottom of the first when Sammy Holder led off with a line-drive two-base hit to left-center, advanced to third on a passed ball and was plated on a sac fly to center by Grant Liles.
Fritz allowed just one Lewis baserunner to reach third the rest of the evening and set down 10 batters in a row after Liles doubled to right-center in the third inning. The only other Lewis hit was an infield single by Holder just prior to Liles' two-bagger, but Holder was cut down at second base on an attempted steal by Ashland catcher Pete Mullins.
The Tomcats put two more runs on the board in the second to go ahead to stay.
After Wampler fanned Evan Yongue, Jake Hall reached on an infield single and stole second before Wampler plunked Austin Kelley with a pitch. After a flyout for the second out, Salow struck again. The left-handed hitting senior center fielder drove a pitch to right field that one-hopped the fence and plated Hall and Kelley.
In the third, Ashland senior third baseman Cade O'Bryan led off the inning with a home run just inside the right field foul pole and the Tomcats added two more runs in the fourth.
Kelley led off the frame with an infield single, advanced to second when Wampler hit Evan Cox with a pitch, advanced to third on Salow's forceout and scored on a wild pitch. Salow later scored the second run of the frame on a sacrifice fly to left by Jared Slone.
Meanwhile, Fritz was breezing along. He walked just one batter and struck out five and his coach was also pleased with how the team played behind him, as well as the offensive production.
"We kicked some around earlier in the year and we want to make the routine plays. We're still working at it but we made some good plays tonight," Wilcox said. "We know they didn't pitch their best pitcher tonight and we didn't either but we did hit well. Logan's been hitting great in this recent stretch and the big boy (O'Bryan) is very capable of doing what he did tonight with that home run."
The Lions (14-7) play Holmes at Nicholas County on Saturday morning and meet the Bluejackets in the afternoon before returning home to face Mason County next Tuesday.
Ashland 121 200 0 --6 9 2
Lewis 100 000 0 --1 3 3
WP: Fritz, LP: Wampler.
Hitting leaders: AB: Salow 3-5, 2 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI; Stone RBI; O'Bryan 2-3, HR, R, RBI; Elam 1-3, RBI; Hall 2-4, R; Kelley 1-2, 2 R. LC: Holder 2-3, 2B, R; Liles 1-2, RBI.
Records: Ashland Blazer 13-7, Lewis County 14-8