The weather may have messed up the bracket for the Oak Ridge Tournament, but it certainly did not faze the St. Vincent baseball team.
The Indians dominated the two games during the tournament with a 13-0 victory over Crystal City on Friday and an 11-1 win over Jefferson on Saturday.
“We really needed to play a couple of good games and we definitely got it there,” St. Vincent coach Corey Sauer said. “We have been close at times this season with where we need to be. We just haven’t been able put it all together at one time. Over the weekend, everything looks like it has started moving into a positive direction.”
The Indians came into the tournament sitting with a 2-8 record and needed something good to happen. It certainly did. The Indians scored 24 runs in two games and allowed three total hits against the Hornets and Blue Jays.
Jake Seabaugh took it upon himself in game one against the Hornets on Friday and pitched a complete game no-hitter in five innings. Seabaugh pitched nearly perfect allowing no hits, no walks and struck out 12.
“It always helps out the pitching staff when you have someone pitch that well,” Sauer said.
The offense did just as well as Seabaugh as the Indians had 12 hits and scored eight runs in the second inning and another four in the fifth for the decisive victory. Every batter, but one had at least one hit. St. Vincent was led by Simon Barber who collected four of those hits and drove in a run, and also scored three times. Carson House had a pair of hits and so did Christian Schaaf, who used those pair of hits to drive in four runs.”
In game two, the St. Vincent offense kept rolling as they scored at least one run in every inning and took advantage of four Jefferson errors.
Seabaugh and Nick Buchheit each had three hits, and combined for five RBI in the game. Barber added another two hits in the game as every player, but one had at least one hit.
Sauer was especially proud of Andrew Schumer, who wasn’t overpowering on the mound, but pitched well to get the win. Schumer went all five innings, gave up three hits, with three walks and one strikeout.
“He did what you want a young pitcher to do,” he said. “He pitched to his defense and let them make the plays behind him.”
The offense has struggled for the most part this season for St. Vincent. The Indians have a tough schedule, which has put them in holes early in games and they haven’t been able to get anything going.
“When that is happening, it doesn’t allow us to do the things we are good at, which is manufacturing runs, and gap to gap hitting. It takes time to get in a rhythm and we have some guys in there who are experiencing the varsity level for the first time. We are still working on who goes where and what works for them. Those things take time.”
There isn’t a definite date in which Sauer hopes to have everything squared away, but he knows his team has to be playing its best ball late in the season.
Any coach will tell you that,” Sauer said. “We have kind of used this tournament as a benchmark to where we need to be. Obviously, we were struggling and if we left the tournament at 2-10 that would be a big hole to climb out of. We hope we can use these games here to build momentum.”
