Diamond patrol: Lake Orion wins 3-of-4 in 30-hour period
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
TROY— Lake Orion was backed against the wall. Now, the Dragons have done their part.
Lake Orion clinched no worse than second place in the OAA Red Division baseball race by going 3-1 in a period of around 30-hurs Friday and Saturday. The Dragons can earn a clinch of the title if third-place Troy Athens can upend Rochester Stoney Creek in a make-up game Wednesday.
Stoney Creek is 12-3 in the league and has already clinched at least a tie.
Lake Orion defeated Troy Athens 7-1 late Saturday afternoon in its final regular season game — a contest that was postponed several times due to bad weather. Earlier in the day, Lake Orion rolled over rival Clarkston, 13-2.
On Friday, Lake Orion dropped a 8-4 decision to Rochester and one of the state’s top pitchers, Nick Bradley. The Dragons (25-6, 12-4) came back to defeat Troy Athens 10-0 later in the day.
“We’ve played four games in two days before, when we’ve had tournaments like on Memorial Day weekend in past years,” said Lake Orion coach Andy Schramek. “I don’t think we’ve played this many with this much pressure.
“We knew after we lost to Rochester that we would have to win out to even have a chance to gain a title share,” added Schramek. “I’m pleased with how our pitching held up. I didn’t know because we have a district game Tuesday and we had to play all of these games this past week.”
Freshman Brad Schaenzer gained his first varsity win on the mound, stepping up to the plate when his team needed some clutch innings
“It was a little nerve-wracking,” admitted Schaenzer, who older brother is also part of the pitching staff at Lake Orion. “I felt some pressure. I knew I had to come through for the team.”
Schaenzer, who recently came back from a minor back injury, kept the Red Hawks’ batter at bay. He gave up one earned run, three hits with four strikeouts and four walks in six innings of work. Dalton Oveson pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning to shut the door on Athens.
Leading 2-1 in the fifth, Lake Orion pushed five runs across the plate on the strength of six hits. Bret Wyss, Roman Kuster and Nick Deeg each had RBI doubles in the fifth and Oveson also had an RBI single in the frame to cap the outburst.
Athens lost for the third time in four outings this week and dropped to 18-7 overall and 10-5 in league play.
“We have a district game Tuesday against Utica, so I couldn’t use my top pitchers,” admitted Athens coach Mike Morris.”We were already out of the league (race) because we lost a couple of games this week. But we still wanted to play well. We’re just fortunate enough to be able to get all of these games in the past few days. This spring has been ridiculous with all of the rainouts. We’ve had close to 20 games rained out and postponed.”
LAK E ORION13, CLARKSTON 2: Sophomore Nick Deeg pitched two innings, giving up three hits and one earned run and Dalton Overson got the win in relief, giving up two hits with three strikeouts and one walk for the Dragons Saturday morning in this OAA Red Division road make-up game.
Deeg added a two-run single and Cole Schaenzer had a pair of RBI doubles and scored three times to lead the Dragons’ attack. Cody Campbell added a three-run home run for the Dragons, who collected 15 hits on the day to avenge a loss to the Wolves suffered last month. Bret Wyss also scored a pair of runs.
Clarkston slipped to 17-7, 7-6 in league play and into fourth place in the eight-school divisions. Clarkston has three makeup games, including one at Rochester Tuesday.
LAKE ORION 10, TROY ATHENS 0: Cody Campbell picked the right time to step up and fire a no-hitter, going six strong innings with five strikeouts to eliminate the Red Hawks from the league title chase. Campbell was also 2-for-4 with three RBI to help his own cause. Cole Schaenzer was 4-for-4 with four RBI to pace the Dragons’ attack.
ROCHESTER 8, LAKE ORION 4: Nick Bradley pushed his record to 8-1 with this pitching win against host Lake Orion Friday morning. Bradley gave up four earned runs, the most all season as he has given up only six all spring. He struck out five, walked four and gave up six hits in six innings of work. Bradley also had four hits in the win, including a home run and three doubles and two RBI. Evan Surnick was 2-for-4 and scored twice for the Falcons (14-14, 6-8), who swept Lake Orion this season. Bret Wyss finished 2-for-4 with two RBI for Lake Orion.
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Category: Clarkston, High School, High School (M-Z), Lake Orion, Prep Wraps, Rochester, Troy Athens
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