PHOTOS BY JACOB KESSLER / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
ACME BASEBALL … Evergreen’s Quinn Eisel takes a swing during last week’s 21-0 win over Fayette. VIEW 112 PHOTOS OF THIS CONTEST FOR FREE AT WWW.THEVILLAGEREPORTER.COM
By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
sports@thevillagereporter.com
METAMORA (June 21, 2024) – Baseball can be as simple as if you throw strikes you can be successful and if you don’t..well you won’t.
Evergreen’s Jake Farley and Zack Kruzel had a strike rate of 70 percent on 53 pitches and did not give up a hit as the duo split four innings in a 21-0 Viking win over Fayette.
The game was halted after the previously agreed on two-hour time limit in the bottom of the fourth.
Farley breezed through the first on just nine pitches, but it took Fayette a bit longer to get the Vikings back out of the dugout.
Eagle starter Carter Lavinder just couldn’t find the zone as Evergreen scored eight first inning runs without a hit as the Fayette lefty walked nine and a number of passed balls and wild pitches moved runners across the plate.
Evergreen scored a more conventional two runs in the second. Base hits from Chris Shrader, JJ Johnson, Kruzel and Owen Dohrman plated two more after two were out to make it 10-0.
Hayes Studenka’s leadoff line drive single in the third started a seven-run rally in the third against reliever Caden Leininger.
Six more walks and a hit batter around Austin Burghardt’s RBI single keyed the scoring spurt. Meanwhile on the mound, Farley threw 15 strikes in his 22 pitches allowing a walk and striking out a pair to get the victory. Kruzel threw 22 strikes in 31 pitches, striking out four around a walk.
FAYETTE PITCHER … Carter Lavinder tosses a pitch in the first inning at Evergreen.