The St. Elizabeth Hornets jumped out to an early lead and built on it for a 14-2 run-rule victory in six innings Tuesday against the Calvary Lutheran Lions.
The Hornets were able to get to Calvary Lutheran ace Jonathan Lieb early with a pair of runs on sacrifice flies from Brock Lucas and Jace Kesel in the top of the first. The Hornets were able to add three more in the second after three straight RBI doubles from Caleb Oligschlaeger, Isaac Green and Lucas with two outs to extend the lead to 5-0 and knocked Lieb off the mound after just 1⅔ innings pitched.
“I expected to stay a little closer since we started our best pitcher, Jonathan,” Calvary Lutheran coach Rusty Bourg said. “He wasn’t on, he wasn’t hitting his spots and things like that. They were putting the ball in play and next thing you know it was starting to get away from us.”
St. Elizabeth also sent its ace, Brock Lucas, to the mound. Lucas threw two scoreless innings while allowing two hits and striking out five.
“Coming in, I was either going to start him or come in to just get a couple innings of work,” St. Elizabeth coach Caleb Heckemeyer said. “He pitched well. He wasn’t throwing as hard as he could at the beginning, but if he got in trouble he reared back. He looked good out there.”
The Hornets extended their lead to 8-0 in the top of the third. Gavin Williams started the rally with a one-out walk and later scored on an RBI single from Oligschlaeger. Green followed up the two-out single up the middle that plated Noah Chipman and Oligschlaeger.
After extending its lead, St. Elizabeth made a call to the bullpen for Carter Otto to enter the game to pitch. The Lions were able to strike for two runs in the bottom of the third after Lieb led off with a single and came around to score on a ground ball hit to third by Ben Hardin, who reached first on an error. Hardin came around to score after Alex Proctor followed up with an RBI double to left field to cut the deficit to 8-2.
Calvary Lutheran then brought in Jesse Jorgensen to pitch. Jorgensen was able to work scoreless innings in the fourth and fifth while allowing two walks with no hits and striking out three.
“I was happy with our pitching,” Bourg said. “Even Jonathan, he wasn’t on, but he made some good pitches. They put it in play and just landed where somebody wasn’t. That’s baseball. I was pretty happy with our arms today. Other than the score, I liked the way we competed.”
The Lions were unable to take advantage of Jorgensen’s efforts on the mound. Otto settled in after his shaky third inning and held the Lions off the board in the fourth and fifth innings while allowing just two more hits.
“With all of our rain outs, we haven’t been able to get pitchers a whole lot of work,” Heckemeyer said. “Him coming in for his first inning, guys putting the ball in play, he just needed to settle down. When he settled down, he looked good out there and let the defense help him out.”
St. Elizabeth was able to put the game away in the top of the sixth.
The Hornets sent 10 batters to the plate and scored four runs to extend their lead to 14-2 to put the Lions in jeopardy of a run-rule defeat in the bottom half.
Nick Heckemeyer entered the game to pitch for St. Elizabeth and worked a 1-2-3 inning to close out the game.
Calvary Lutheran (3-3) was led at the plate by Lieb with a 3-for-3 day in the leadoff spot.
Oligschlaeger led the way for St. Elizabeth (6-4) by going 2-for-3 with a pair of walks and two RBI at the plate while Green added a 2-for-3 day as well with three RBI.
Calvary Lutheran will be back in action Friday when it hosts Lone Jack and Belle in the New Bloomfield/Calvary Lutheran Tournament that has been shortened to just two games after teams dropped out.
St. Elizabeth will also be participating and will be back in action Saturday when it plays Lone Jack and New Bloomfield.