BASEBALL: Logan swept by LaPorte in opening twinbill

Apr. 1—The Logansport-LaPorte doubleheader was once again moved to Jim Turner Field but for the Berries unfortunately that didn't help their performance on the field.

The Slicers recorded a sweep by scores of 9-3 and 12-1 in what was a long day for the Berries on Saturday.

The Slicers (2-1) avenged a sweep at the hands of the Berries (0-2) from last season. They return several starters from last year's team that won their 37th sectional title in program history.

The two teams, who have long been considered two of the best baseball programs in the state, have now met annually since 2016 when the field turf was brand new at Turner Field. Every year the games have been scheduled to play at LaPorte they've been moved to Turner Field because of the field turf, which was again the case on Saturday. Logan is 8-7 against LaPorte since the series was renewed after the two losses on Saturday. LaPorte's only other sweep was two years ago.

The Berries return four starters from last year's 22-10 team but two of those players were on Spring Break cruises with senior pitcher/first baseman Dylan Pearson and junior second baseman Cayden Walker. Pearson will get the ball for the Berries' NCC opener at Lafayette Jeff on Tuesday, coach Dan Frye said.

The Berries' plan to start the year is for Pearson to be the ace of the staff and to patch the other games together with the pitching staff. The two starters on Saturday, Carson Dubes and Cooper Smith, each worked multiple scoreless innings before running into trouble in the middle innings.

The highlight of the day was probably defense, particularly the play of senior shortstop Isaac Russell. Sophomore Hudson McKinney did a nice job filling in at second. There were also a few web gems as noted by Frye.

"We didn't play so bad defensively as far as errors go," he said. "We had a couple. We had a few great plays out there. We had a diving catch from Micah [Rogers] in the first game. Deagan [Kitchel] makes a diving attempt and comes up short in the second game but stops the ball from getting past him. He also ran to the right field foul line and reached over the fence to make a great catch in foul territory. Cooper makes a Willy Mays type catch down the first base line. Russell makes a heck of a play. But we've got to shore some things up. We're not throwing enough strikes. We didn't strike out as much."

The Berries offense managed just six hits on the day.

"Obviously they're a well coached team but I know they threw their better pitchers earlier in the week [against Penn]," Frye said. "The first time out I maybe expected it to be a little bit slow getting the bats going. But I thought we'd had done a little bit better than that."

The Berries were getting no-hit in the sixth inning in game two when Kitchel lifted an opposite field fly ball that sailed over the fence in right center with two outs for his first varsity home run.

"Deagan's home run was a really good to right center which is his power swing. That was nice to see," Frye said. "I thought we had some other kids with some good swings but we had too few of good swings today. So I'm hoping we were just a little anxious and we'll get going. But we've got to be a little better in the batter's box and we've got to be better on the pitcher's mound and behind the plate. We've got to get better."

Russell had a hit, four stolen bases and two runs scored on the day. Dubes had a single and two RBIs. Kitchel, McKinney and Zach Freels each added a hit.

Dubes allowed one unearned run through the first three innings before he ran into some trouble in the fourth and fifth. He ended up allowing six runs (four earned) on eight hits in 4 1/3 innings. Jace Smith allowed two runs on one hit, three walks and a hit batter in one inning. Freels allowed one run on three hits and a walk in 1 2/3 innings.

Smith worked three scoreless frames before he ran into trouble in the fourth in game two. He allowed four runs on four hits and four walks in 3 2/3 innings.

The Slicers ended the game early with an eight-run sixth. Rogers allowed seven runs on four hits and four walks in two innings of relief. Aiden Swank allowed one run on two hits, one walk and one hit batter in 1/3 of an inning.

"It's simple, we're putting too many guys on base and when we do they get a hit and we're giving up two runs with one hit because we're walking too many people," Frye said. "But we'll build on it. There was a lot of good things about today."

The Berries travel to Lafayette Jeff Tuesday and host the Bronchos Wednesday to open their final season of NCC play.