The Slicer baseball team traveled to Goshen for their annual doubleheader Saturday and came home with a sweep 8-0 and 7-4.

 

Brock Schultz stepped up in game one, tossing a two-hit shutout while striking out six. He allowed just one Redhawk to even reach second base. He was assisted by a stout defense that did not commit an error and turned two double plays. The first was a standard 5-4-3, Drew Catron to Kade Flores to Tommy Samuelson that ended the second inning. The Goshen fourth inning was ended with a line drive that deflected off Schultz’s glove in the air to Flores for the first out and Flores tossing to first to double up Braxton Cline who had strayed too far down the line.

 

The Slicer offense scored in four of seven innings. In the first Carter Moses singled to left with one out. Courtesy runner Keli Hay stole second and scored on Flores’s double to left. Flores advanced to third on the throw to the plate. RJ Anglin drove Flores in with a strange sacrifice fly to the second baseman Nathan Pinarski. Pinarski caught the popup at the edge of the outfield grass. Instead of running hard at Flores and forcing him back to third, he held onto the ball. Flores, who had taken several steps toward the plate trying to force a throw, bolted for home. The startled Pinarski’s throw was high and LP had a 2-0 lead after one inning. 

 

La Porte came up empty in the second. A single by Drew Flores and a walk to Catron put a runner on first and third with two outs. Ben Dubbs hit a hard line drive that was right at centerfielder Noah Alford for the final out. 

 

The Slicers picked up two more runs in the third. A leadoff single by Moses, who was replaced by courtesy runner Hay, and a walk to Kade Flores put two runners on. Anglin knocked in Hay with a base hit and later in the inning Samuelson singled in Flores to make it 4-0 LP.

 

The Slicers were scoreless in the fourth and fifth.

 

In the sixth, singles by Drew Flores and Ryan Bruemmer put runners at the corners. Catron hit a sacrifice fly to center to drive in Hay. Dubbs was hit by a pitch and Kade Flores walked to load the bases. Anglin came through again with a two-RBI single scoring both Bruemmer and Dubbs to make it 7-0 after six.

 

La Porte picked up an insurance run in the seventh. Hay, pinch-hitting for Samuelson, was hit by a pitch and stole second. He scored on Catron’s base hit making the final 8-0.

 

Schultz was named the Salisbury and Spence Edward Jones Player of the Game for his outstanding mound performance. Anglin finished 2-3 with four RBI, Drew Flores was 2-3 with a run scored, Catron knocked in two runs and Kade Flores scored twice.

 

In game two it looked like the Slicers were going to make short work of the Redhawks with four runs in the first and two more in the second to take a quick 6-0 lead. 

 

In the top of the first Catron reached on an error by the Goshen third baseman. Kade Flores had a single to left. Both scored on Anglin’s double.  Hay followed up with a double of his own driving in Anglin and he was driven by Kai Jones’ base hit to make it 4-0.

 

In the second inning, AJ Mrozinske was hit by a pitch to lead things off. Ben Dubbs and Catron each had RBI singles to make it 6-0.  

 

Goshen sent freshman Ryan Diaz to the mound to start the third and the young curveballer quieted the Slicer bats for four innings allowing Goshen to creep back into the game.

 

Tommy Samuelson got the start for the Slicers, making his first mound appearance of the season. Samuelson pitched four innings, giving up one run on four hits, fanning three, walking two and hitting one. The score stood at 6-1 after four innings. 

 

Kade Flores came in to pitch in the bottom of the fifth. Thomas Castillo led off with an infield hit. Cline then hit a slow roller just on the shortstop side of second base with Castillo running. Anglin came over, bobbled the grounder to take away the force out then tried to get the runner at first. His throw sailed and ended up in the Goshen dugout allowing Castillo to score to make it 6-2. Goshen added two more in the inning when DH Payton Bontrager ripped a two-run double. He tried to stretch it into a triple but was thrown out at third on a solid relay throw to end the inning. The score stood at 6-4 after five.

 

The Slicers and Redhawks both got singles in the sixth but could not score.

 

LP picked up an important insurance run in the top of the seventh. Drew Flores drew a lead-off walk and scored on Bruemmer’s long double to make it 7-4.

 

Jones came in to pitch the bottom of the seventh and Goshen quickly put two men on. Catron couldn’t handle a tough hop moving to his left allowing the leadoff man Cline to reach. Quinn Shreiner-Landes reached on an infield hit to bring the tying run to the plate with no outs. Jones got the dangerous Damian Castillo to fly out deep to left then finished the Redhawks off with a strike out and ground out to preserve the victory.

 

Anglin was the Salisbury and Spence Edward Jones Player of the Game. The senior shortstop was 3-4 with a run scored and three RBI in game two. For the day, he was 5-8 with a run scored and seven runs knocked in. Dubbs was also 3-4 with a run scored. Kade Flores and Keli Hay each added two hits.

 

The wins improve the Slicers to 8-3 on the season. La Porte will travel to Lake Central Tuesday and host the Indians on Wednesday in a battle for the top spot in the DAC. Both squads are 4-0 in conference play. Lake Central is loaded with several Division One commits. They have just one loss on the season and are the #2 rated team in Indiana. Both games are scheduled for 4:30 starts but will likely start closer to 5:00 due to travel. As always both games can be heard on WCOE 96.7 the Eagle.