By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
METAMORA (April 9, 2024) – A wise man one time said, “Big game players make big plays in big games. And big game pitchers want the ball.”
After giving up a first inning run, Evergreen’s Brady Kanneman took the ball and shut Liberty Center down on three hits the rest of the way and led the Vikings to a 4-1 win on the first night of league play int he NWOAL.
“He’s been with us for three years and we have worked with his mentality on the mound such as when things don’t go your way to control what you can control,” explained Viking coach Mark Cymbolin.
“Tonight, he had it really going, he was pretty much lights out. He is going to be out there for league games and our big non-league games. He pumped a lot of fastballs tonight and said, ‘here it comes, hit it’.”
Kanneman blew away the first two Tigers hitter on strikes in the first but walked Landon Amstutz to put a runner on base.
Cleanup hitter Zack Weaver ripped a double off the center field fence to plate Amstutz to put the Tigers on top.
From the point on…..pffftttt. The Tigers offense was almost nil. LC got an Amstutz single and a walk to start the fourth, but Kanneman induced two fly balls and a strikeout to stuff the threat.
In the seventh, Landon Smith doubled with two down, but Kanneman whiffed the next hitter for the last of his 11 strikeouts in the game.
The Vikes got back even in the bottom of the first. Colton Robertson doubled, went to third on a wild pitch and sped home on Cory Kanneman’s chopper to knot the game back up.
Then in the third Evergreen opened a gap, as they tallied three more. An error, Robertson’s single then another base hit up the gut from Layne Vance gave Evergreen the lead for keeps.
Cory Kanneman’s bunt single loaded the bases and Bryce Bolger came up big in the moment with a shot to left that scored two more Vikings runs, for a 4-1 lead.
“He is in the cleanup spot for a reason,” Cymbolin said of Bolger. “He hit a strike and didn’t miss it, didn’t foul it off, wasn’t reaching, just relaxed and squared up a strike. He did what he is supposed to do in those situations.”
Evergreen had a chance to extend against the Tigers starter Heath Atkinson in the fourth when Sean Rafferty led off with a single and went to second on a balk. However, two botched bunt attempts and two groundouts killed that threat.
Cory Kanneman doubled into the left field corner starting the fifth and trotted to third on a passed ball, but Atkinson got three straight groundouts to stuff another rally.
Robertson and Cory Kanneman each had two hits as Evergreen had eight on the day and played errorless baseball behind Kanneman.
“This is what we preach,” Cymbolin said of the Vikings play in the field. “At least what we try to preach and hopefully it happens, and this is the way we want to play baseball, play it clean, play it right. It was a good overall performance and a bulldog mentality.”
L. CENTER 100 000 0 – 1 4 2
EVERGREEN 103 000 x – 4 8 0
Records: L. Center 3-2 (0-1 NWOAL), Evergreen 4-3 (1-0 NWOAL)
WINNING PITCHER: B. Kanneman (7 innings, 4 hits, 1 run, 11 strikeouts, 3 walks)
LOSING PITCHER: Atkinson (6 innings, 8 hits, 4 runs, 2 earned, 6 strikeouts, 1 walk)
LEADING HITTERS: (LC) – Weaver – double, RBI; Matthews – double; (Evergreen) Robertson – double, single, 2 runs; C. Kanneman – double, single, RBI; Bolger – single, 2 RBIs
