Baseball Millionaires drop opener to Wildcats

LEE – The 2013 season had an auspicious start for the Wildcats, despite the cold weather forcing a majority of practice time indoors, giving both Lee and Lenox one day to prepare for last Friday’s opener.

The result was a 7-2 Wildcat victory, as Lenox flamethrower Austin Salnitis was hampered by a blister and the cold weather in issuing 10 walks leading to six Lee runs.

“Walks will kill you,” said Lenox Head Coach Kevin Downer. “You can’t walk people – Austin did have a blister on his hand that stopped him from being the pitcher that he is and the cold weather didn’t help.”

Salnitis, whose fastball has been clocked in the low 90s over the past summer, never seemed comfortable on the mound against Lee, struggling to get both his curveball and slider near the plate.

“We had our pitching machine cranked up expected to see him,” said Lee Head Coach Chip Cummings. “We aren’t intimidated –we know he is a good pitcher but we had confidence.”

Salnitis allowed only one hit, a Jake Simon swinging bunt, yet Lee was patient all day at the plate, forcing Salnitis to work from behind in the count.

“We were patient at the plate – we didn’t hit the cover off the ball – we were aggressive on the bases and played good defense,” Cummings said.

Lee also had solid pitching, as starter J.T. Brown used his lively fastball to pitch five hitless innings for the win, before all-star catcher Heamon Williams came in for relief.

Williams earned the save, pitching the final two frames and allowing two unearned runs.

While both teams combined to register only five hits, which is not surprising due to the early season temperatures, the defense was spotty for both teams due to the lack of practice time on the field.

In the bottom of the second, miscommunication with the Lenox outfielders allowed a run to score on a sacrifice fly giving the Wildcats an early 1-0 lead.

“We’ve been working in the gym just on that – going back on fly balls, but in the gym, it’s tough to do,” Downer said. “Obviously we need to do a lot of work outside – probably in another week or two, with a couple of practices outside, we gun that guy down at home plate.”

One bright spot for the Millionaires was the relief pitching of Lenox sophomore Dillon Benham, who pitched three innings, allowing one run on one hit, making Coach Downer think twice on his pitching rotation.

“[Benham] was fantastic,” Downer said. “He planned on being my number three pitcher, but today, I wouldn’t be afraid to throw him in a big game.”

For the Wildcats rotation, Coach Cummings will use Matt Consolati and Jake Simon coupled with Brown at the top of his rotation and will try to shorten their innings by using Williams primarily in relief this season.

“[Brown] did a great job for us today and [Williams] came in and finished strong,” Cummings said.

The Wildcats appear to be a different team both on and off the field this year as they garner new uniforms paired with a winning attitude that shined brightly against Lenox.

“We know we are getting better,” Cummings said. “These kids really want to play – different motivation – these guys are a little more serious and they are ready to win with high expectations.”

The Millionaires also have high expectations coming into the season, and Coach Downer was pleased with his team’s effort in the late innings, down seven runs.

“I told the guys, ‘you never gave up down 7-0’ – the kids never stopped battling, and that’s what we are trying to instill in the kids  – to keep battling,” Downer said.

Posted by Tim Davis on April 11, 2013. Filed under High School Sports,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry