No. 6 Portland St. Patrick sweeps top-ranked Fowler behind stellar pitching, effective small ball
PORTLAND, Mich. (WLNS) – Small ball and stellar pitching performances led the way for the Portland St. Patrick baseball team in a doubleheader sweep of Fowler on Thursday night.
The Shamrocks won 2-1 in walk-off fashion in game one before taking game two 4-1.
The CMAC doubleheader was a clash between two of the top 10 teams in the state in Div. 4. The latest MHSBCA poll ranked the Eagles as the No. 1 team in the state and the Shamrocks at No. 6.
Game one was tied 1-1 heading into the seventh inning. The Eagles threatened in the top half of the inning, putting runners on second and third with two outs. However, St. Patrick sophomore pitcher Brady Leonard squashed the threat with an inning-ending strikeout.
The Shamrocks wasted little time getting to work in the bottom of the frame and manufactured the winning run without hitting the ball out of the infield. Nathan Fears led off the inning with a bunt for a base hit.
Then, hoping to sacrifice Fears over to second, Devin Cook laid down another bunt. However, Cook’s bunt was perfectly placed between the pitcher and second baseman and he also reached safely.
Spurred on by the success of the first two attempts, the Shamrocks’ Riley Mosser then laid down a third bunt, and when the pitcher’s throw to first tipped off the glove of the first baseman, Fears broke for home and beat the throw for the walk-off winner.
“We’re a small school, we’re not going to have a ton of guys that smash the ball around the yard, so we know we have to do the little stuff if we want to win,” head coach Dan Thelen said of the Shamrocks’ small-ball approach. “Credit to our kids, they buy into it.”
In game two, St. Patrick pitchers Brayden Simon and Jerryd Scheurer combined to quiet the Fowler bats again, allowing just one run in the seventh inning of the 4-1 victory.
“Coming in we knew we had to do our job and just play how we play,” said Leonard. “Do the small things. Do the little things right.”
“We put in a lot of work to be able to beat teams like this,” he added.
Portland St. Patrick improves to 21-1 on the season with the victories while Fowler falls to 17-4-1 with the losses.
Over on the softball diamond, the Eagles and Shamrocks split their doubleheader.
Portland St. Patrick earned a 5-1 win in game one but Fowler answered back with an 11-9 win in a back-and-forth second game.
The loss in game one snapped a four-game winning streak for the Eagles, who hold a 15-7 record this season.
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