Published: August 12, 2009 11:32 pm      

Zanesville gets strong pitching, defense in victory

Less than 12 hours after an atypical loss, Zanesville picked up its first win in the AAABA Tournament by doing what it does best: Pitching well, playing good defense and capitalizing on an opponent’s mistakes.

The Junior Pioneers (1-1) beat Schenectady 4-2 at Point Stadium on Wednesday morning.

Zanesville only had three hits against Schenectady PNA, but it got a strong pitching performance from Logan Lewis and Ryan Highman and played error-free baseball.

“That’s kind of a typical game for us,” Zanesville manager Doug Pollock said.

“Back home our pitching was pretty good. We made most of the defensive plays, (would) get enough offense to take advantage of a couple mistakes and scratch out three or four runs.”

Zanesville pitchers walked 13 Delweld batters in a 13-0 loss on Tuesday night, but Lewis righted the ship against Schenectady. He gave up just two runs on four hits in seven innings, walking four.

“He’s probably been our most consistent pitcher as far as getting us into the sixth or seventh inning,” Pollock said.

Zanesville scored three runs in the sixth despite not getting a hit. Schenectady starter Corey Haight walked Tyler Hardcastle and Alexander Cultice to lead off the inning, then compounded his problems by trying to get Hardcastle at third on Erik Spitzer’s bunt attempt. The throw was late, loading the bases with no outs.

“He led of the inning with a walk and things kind of imploded from there,” Schenectady manager Todd Godlewski said.

Russell Seidell hit a ground ball to Aaron Zrenda that could have been a double play, but didn’t result in any outs. The Schenectady shortstop bobbled the ball, then dropped it again as he stepped on second base.

Zanesville added an insurance run in the eighth as Seidell walked and scored when Billy Manley threw wide of first on Josh Eckard’s infield single. Eckard had two of Zanesville’s three hits.

Haight gave up four runs – two earned – on two hits in seven innings. He walked four and struck out six.

Schenectady didn’t manage its first hit until the fifth inning, but it brought home the game’s first run. Matt Pause, who had walked to lead off the inning, scored on Matt Eisenhuth’s single to center field. After a wild pitch, Eisenhuth scored on James Aldrich’s base hit to make it 2-0.

Highman pitched two scoreless innings for the save.