Latest / Illinois Valley - Shaw Local / Ottawa completes Illinois River Rivalry series sweep, blanking La Salle-Peru 10-0

Transcript

Ottawa completes Illinois River Rivalry series sweep, blanking La Salle-Peru 10-0 · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Ottawa completes Illinois River Rivalry series sweep, blanking La sal
• 0:09
  Peru ten zero. Written by Bill Frescos, This article is
• 0:15
  being read by an automated voice brought to you by Everlet.
• 0:19
  Good situational hitting and a dominant outing on the mound
• 0:23
  carried Ottawa baseball to a ten to zero win over
• 0:26
  La sal Peru on a rainy Thursday night at HUBI Sarverarfield,
• 0:29
  taking home the Illinois River Rivalry trophy and completing the
• 0:33
  series sweep with eight of the Pirates nine nine, one
• 0:37
  four four ten runs coming with two outs or on
• 0:40
  sacrifice flies. Ottawa coach Levi Erickson said he was pleased
• 0:43
  to see his lineup deliver in clutch situations, an area
• 0:47
  the coaching staff has emphasized in recent weeks. It's an
• 0:51
  area that we've struggled with at points this year. We've
• 0:54
  had runners in scoring position, runner on third, less than
• 0:57
  two outs, and we just haven't executed those situations well enough.
• 1:01
  Ericson said. Even in the first we found ourselves in
• 1:04
  that same situation with less than two outs and didn't
• 1:08
  capitalize right away. But tonight we found a way with
• 1:11
  two outs. We hit the ball hard. And put pressure
• 1:14
  on them with fourteen hits total, seven coming from the
• 1:18
  seven to nine spots in the lineup. Ericsson also pointed
• 1:21
  to quality at bats throughout the order as a key
• 1:24
  reason for the team's two out success. The bottom of
• 1:27
  the order has been a struggle for us sometimes this year,
• 1:30
  but today they really stepped up, he said. When those
• 1:33
  guys can get on and turn it over to a
• 1:35
  guy like Adam Swanson's at the top, we're gonna score runs.
• 1:40
  Leftfielder Jack Carroll delivered in the seventh spot, going three
• 1:43
  for three with two RBIs, while sophomore shortstop Rory Moore
• 1:47
  went two for three in the nine hole, including a
• 1:50
  triple to the warning track. In center field, Swanson went
• 1:54
  a perfect four for four with an RBI and also
• 1:56
  started the game at pitcher, throwing six scoreless innings with
• 2:00
  eight strikeouts on a short rest after earning the win
• 2:03
  out of the bullpen on Tuesday. He's a guy where
• 2:06
  you know what you're going to get when he steps
• 2:08
  on that mound. He's going to go out there and
• 2:10
  challenge hitters, work quick, and hit his spots, Ericson said
• 2:14
  of his senior leader. He threw on Tuesday, then came,
• 2:17
  came back tonight and kept dealing. That's just who he is.
• 2:21
  Following a tough one to four week Ericson said he
• 2:25
  wanted his team to approach each game day with a
• 2:28
  fresh mentality and believes it's paying early dividends with the
• 2:31
  series sweep. After that first win this week, we talked
• 2:35
  about clearing everything and just coming ready to play every day,
• 2:38
  he said. I believe we've done that so far, and
• 2:41
  now these guys should have some confidence, and confidence obviously
• 2:45
  can go a long way in this game. With only
• 2:48
  three hits total, LaSalle Peru eight thirteen, three six head
• 2:52
  coach Matt Glepsinski explained his team's struggles at the dish
• 2:55
  while tipping his cap to Swanson. I don't think we
• 2:59
  had a very good approach today. Swanson's a really good
• 3:02
  pitcher and deserves a lot of credit, but we didn't
• 3:05
  do the things at the plate that we've been doing
• 3:07
  all year, Glupsinsky said. And that kind of goes across
• 3:11
  the board pitching and in defense too. I didn't feel
• 3:14
  like we really showed up today. We were just kind
• 3:17
  of there and it shows on the scoreboard. The only
• 3:20
  Cavaliers to record a hit were designated hitter Braylan Bond,
• 3:24
  centerfielder Nick Salazar, and left fielder a Don Pantoja, a
• 3:28
  pair of lefties. We're working today on the mound for
• 3:31
  the Calves, with Tyler Spelich and Geno arguabright allowing four
• 3:35
  earned runs each. Despite the loss, Glupsinsky said he emphasized
• 3:40
  to his guys that there's a lot of baseball left
• 3:42
  and wants them to focus on what's ahead. You've got
• 3:45
  to have a short memory. This isn't our whole season. Yeah,
• 3:50
  it's our rival and there was a lot at stake,
• 3:52
  but our season's not over, he said. We're a good
• 3:55
  ball club and we've shown that, but we just need
• 3:57
  to be more consistent. Hopefully we'll see them again in
• 4:00
  the playoffs.