Another Split for the Ocelots

PORT HURON, Mich: The Schoolcraft baseball team went on the road over the weekend to wrap up their season series with the Skippers from St. Clair County Community College. Going into the weekends doubleheader, Schoolcraft led the season series 2-1. 

Game 1: Game 1 of the doubleheader did not see much change from the other games in the series, close. For the first three innings, there would be no runs scored until the bottom of the fourth when St. Clair would post a two run inning to take the lead 2-0. As Schoolcraft has shown most of the year, when a team scores on them, they usually are quick to respond, and this was no different. Schoolcraft would put up a two spot of their own in the top of the fifth, thanks to a two-run home run off of the bat of Mason Malysz. Malysz scored John Sowards (double) on the big blast. The game would remain locked in at two a side until the bottom of the seventh when St. Clair would get a walk-off single to win the game 3-2. Schoolcraft generated 8 total hits for the game, Sawyer Pace (1), Landon Kempainen (1), Nate Saavedra (1), Sowards (2), Malysz (1), and Arturo Delgado (2) were the Ocelots who registered knocks. Austin Smolenski got the start for Schoolcraft and went 6.1 IP, 3 ER, 4 K.

Game 2: Game 2 of the doubleheader wound up getting postponed to the following day, Sunday (April 23), due to a storm that rolled in. It would be a new day but the same type of game, close. The rubber match of the series might have been the closest one yet as both teams failed to plate a run over the 7 innings as the game would have to go into extras knotted at 0-0. The top of the eighth innning saw the most offense for the Ocelots in one inning for the series. Schoolcraft would put up a big two out rally as they would plate four runs in the inning. The scoring got kicked off by Sawyer Pace, who would would rope a single into right field to score Zach Perpich, who pinch ran for Mason Malysz (walk). Following an Andrew Thorning walk, Landon Kempainen would single up the middle to score Jacob Gresham, who pinch ran for Ryan Koch (walk), and Pace, who got to second off of an error on his single. The runs would not stop there, Nate Saavedra would come up and rope a groundball to the shortstop, causing an error and allowing Thorning to cross home plate. All of a sudden, the Ocelots were in the drivers seat up 4-0. Josh Michaels would come back out for the eighth to close it out, not without some drama first. Michaels would strike out the first batter of the inning before allowing a walk and two singles. With the bases loaded, Michaels would induce a ground ball, allowing the Ocelots to turn a double-play and close out the game with a 4-0 victory. Philip Miller got the start for Schoolcraft and turned in his best start yet. Miller's final line read, 6.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 12 K. Michaels recorded 2 K's in his 1.1 IP. Pace and Kempainen led the offense with two hits each.

Schoolcraft has a busy week coming up. The Ocelots are back in action Tuesday (April 25) as they host Lorain for a doubleheader. The remainder of the week has the Ocelots hosting Jackson on Thursday (April 27), traveling to Lorain on Friday (April 28) and traveling to Jackson on Saturday (April 29) to close out their season series. You can follow along here, schoolcraftocelots.com, for live stats.