BASEBALL: Oxford manages split with No. 2 Lake Orion
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
Twitter: @LocalSportsFans
LAKE ORION — Oxford’s hitters faced one of the state’s top pitching duos Wednesday afternoon.
The Wildcats amassed only three hits and struck out 26 times against the Dragons’ Josh Deeg and Brad Schaenzer over 14 innings of play. Yet, Oxford still found a way to gain a split against the second-ranked team in Division 1.
Lake Orion won the opener, 7-1, while Oxford came back and held on for a 2-1 victory in the nightcap of the OAA Red Division twinbill.
“That’s baseball,” smiled Oxford coach Jeff Willis. “I can’t say I’m surprised. We beat them before. Baseball is a game where you don’t have to get a lot of hits. You can take advantage of the other team’s mistakes and get good pitching. Anything is possible.”
Senior right-hander Nathan Bruebaker got the win in Game 2 for Oxford (6-11, 5-4). He scattered five hits, struck out five, walked one, and only allowed one runner beyond second base.
Schaenzer, Lake Orion’s junior left-hander, struck out 11 Wildcats but took the loss.
“I explained to the boys to try not to be intimidated,” said Willis. “They aren’t your regular high school pitchers. But we beat them before, 1-0, early in the season. We just had to go up there and swing the bat and try to make something happen.”
Oxford did that just that in the fourth inning of the nightcap. Josh Arndt led off the frame with a single and later scored on a wild pitch following an error. Colin McGeen added an RBI single that plated Jeremy White for what proved to be the game-winning run.
Lake Orion (15-4, 6-3) cut into the deficit in the bottom of the fourth thanks to a two-out triple by Ryan Lambrecht and an RBI single from Roman Kuster. The Dragons had only two hits, both singles after that point.
“I was disappointed in our energy,” said Lake Orion coach Andy Schramek. “I don’t feel like we played with a lot of energy.That’s as contagious as when you play with energy. We didn’t have a lot of baserunners (offensively). Our pitching was fine, but we didn’t have a very good day at the plate.”
In the opener, Lake Orion scored two runs each in the first, second and third innings and tacked on a solo run in the fourth. That was backed by a 15 strikeouts performance by Deeg, who allowed only one hit in his pitching gem.
Connor Grant and Roman Kuster each had two hits and an RBI for Lake Orion, which totaled only six hits in the opener and took advantage of three Oxford errors.
Oxford scored its run in the third inning on an RBI groundout.
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