Up in da club: Clarkston finds the rhythm to dance past Adams
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
CLARKSTON — There’s a few traditions that have been founded in the baseball dugouts at Clarkston: Dancing and pulling pranks.
The Wolves are often found dancing to the beat, multiple players in sync, between innings to songs from a multitude of decades. Players are also getting into the act of pulling pranks of one another, with a no-tell clause so no one can rat out the culprits.
“We started dancing last year and the pranks this year,” said senior Matt Rodgers. “We never tell (who did it). No way. There haven’t been any fights so far. It’s all good.”
Vince Siwicki was on the blunt end of one of those pranks Friday. The senior found his tennis shoes entangled into a giant silver ball with duct tape after he left the pitcher’s mound after six strong innings of work.
Siwicki may not been able to get his teammates to talk about who showed no mercy on his shoes, but he was quick to silence the Highlanders’ bats. Siwicki pitched six innings, scattering three hits while humming five strikeouts and eight walks. He gave up two runs in the first and kept Adams off the scoreboard for the next five innings in a 9-3 OAA Red Division triumph.
Adams scored one run off reliever Andrew Fairse in the seventh, but the Highlanders never seriously threatened.
Rodgers finished 2-for-4, reached base three times and drove in four runs to pace Clarkston’s attack, which featured eight hits, seven walks and two more reaching base on errors.
Dylan Peck was 1-for-2 including a solo home run and an RBI walk, and was superb defensively behind the plate.
“The whole team hit the ball well,” said Rodgers. “We have been struggling with the bat.”
Clarkston coach Phil Price is just glad to see Mother Nature cooperate enough to get the Wolves out on the field under perfect conditions for a baseball game. And he is pleased his veteran ballclub is in the thick of the OAA Red Division race.
“This has been the worse spring in my 20 years in Michigan,” noted Price, whose team has had nearly a dozen games washed away due to bad weather or unplayable field conditions. “There was some sloppy play here today and I think part of that is that we (not only) haven’t played (many games), but we haven’t had the chance to practice. I like how our kids came to play. I like how we swung the bat. It was a good all-around win.
“Matt Rodgers came up with a couple of big hits at the plate,” continued Price. “Dylan Peck, our catcher, is outstanding. It doesn’t show up in the stats, but how many passed balls he doesn’t allow. He’s a backstop back there.”
The Wolves are now 7-1 overall and 2-1 in the league with only a 2-0 setback to Troy Athens two weeks ago to tarnish the record. There are five teams in the league with no or one loss.
“It’s a true testament is when they scored two runs in the first and we came back and scored two to tie it,” added Price. “We have some good kids, a lot of experience. We play with a lot of confidence. We have to respect everybody but fear nobody.”
Clarkston scored two in the first to tie the game at 2-2, added three more in the second and four more in the third to blow the game open.
Rodgers had a two-run single in the second to make it 5-2. In the third, Justin Baetz had a bloop RBI single and scored on a passed ball, while Rodgers again came through with another RBI single that scored two runs and made it 9-2 through three innings.
Senior left-hander Matt Nestor took a rare loss on the mound for Adams, as only four of the Wolves’ nine runs were earned. Adams had several errors, blunders and passed balls.
To make matters worse for Adams was the Highlanders had a run taken away in the second inning on a sac fly attempt, where umpires ruled a runner left third base a second early.
Adams (4-5, 1-3) took a 2-0 led in the first when Ian Mercer doubled and later crossed the plate on a throwing error. Jeff Turnball added an RBI groundout in the same frame.
Adams did not score again until the seventh, when Alex Taylor plated Jeff Olmack on a sac fly.
The Highlanders gave up five unearned runs.
“There is absolutely no excuse. (Clarkston) is in the same boat not (playing many games),”offered first-year Adams coach Jeff Hall. “Vinnie (Siwicki) came out and threw really well for Clarkston. We had a hit in the first inning, scored two runs and had maybe one hit the rest of the game. We struck out 6-7 guys. There were times where we had guys on base, but they were with two outs and we couldn’t capitalize.
“Nestor didn’t throw all that bad,” continued Hall. “We gave up five unearned runs. His velocity wasn’t where it is usually at. He threw well enough to get through 4-5 innings and not give up nine runs. Some of them were not his fault. We didn’t play defense behind him. We dropped the two fly balls, had two errors at first base where we tried to pick guys off and a couple of passed ball. Clarkston did a good job and capitalized (on those mistakes).”
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Category: Clarkston, High School, High School (M-Z), Rochester Adams
