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Prep Sports

Turnabout fair play, Pirates even series with L-P

By Jamie Newell
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Ottawa right fielder Ryan Wendt (3) calls off second baseman Nathan Weitzel (9) just in time and squeezes the out Tuesday during the opening inning of the Pirates' NIB 12 West victory at King Field. (Jimmy McCorkle)

OTTAWA — In 1755, Dudley Bradstreet, an Irish adventurer and government secret agent, is said to be the first to coin the term “turnabout is fair play.”

Now 263 years later, the Ottawa Pirates baseball team took Bradstreet’s words to heart as they played the second of a three-game series against Northern Illinois Big 12 West rival La Salle-Peru at Ottawa High School on Tuesday.

Less than 24 hours earlier at Veteran’s Park in Peru, it was all Cavaliers in game one of the series as the Green and Red scored 18 unanswered runs.This time it was OHS that was doing the hitting and the scoring, as the home team scored seven unanswered runs on its way to an 8-2 win.

“They always say that baseball is a funny game, and tonight proved it,” said Cavs coach Matt Glupczynski. “(Ottawa) did a great job of executing and kind of rising to the challenge, especially when we were up 2-1. They were able to fight back, and their guys were able to thrive in the big moment.”

Leadoff hitter Ty Martyn got the Cavs going in the top of the first inning when he ripped a 3-2 Ben Lundy pitch over the head of Ottawa center fielder Jared Herzog that went all the way to the wall. Martyn motored around the bases and stopped at third with a triple. Next batter up, Brantley Ernat, chased Martyn home on a groundout to Ottawa shortstop Wyatt Hill to make the score 1-0 visitors.

Ottawa tied the game up at 1-1 on an unusual play in the bottom of the second inning.Brandon Sauvegeau singled to left and went to third on a well-placed hit-and-run single to right field by Logan Cheatham.Sauvegeau came home when L-P starter and losing pitcher Carter Moss (4 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 2 K) was called for a balk.

La Salle-Peru (5-15 overall, 3-7 NIB 12 West) took a short-lived 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth when Lucas Burris led off the inning with a single to left, went to third on a groundout to third by Nathan Rodriguez and was chased home on a single to left by Alex Lenkaitis.

Ottawa (12-14, 5-6) got the bats going in the home half of the fourth inning, as it scored three runs to jump ahead 4-2. A Sauvegeau double and a Cheatham single put runners on first and second, and both runners came home when starting and winning pitcher Lundy (7 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 4 BB, 3 K) ripped a laser to the left-center gap for a triple to score the two Pirate runners for a 3-2 Ottawa lead. Lundy then came home on a Nathan Weitzel groundout to Cavaliers first baseman Ky Copeland for the 4-2 lead.

Ottawa put the game away with three more runs in the fifth and one to grow on in the sixth for the six-run margin of victory.

OHS coach Tom Hart was happy to see Lundy get through a couple of tough opening innings to settle down and get the complete-game win. Lundy threw 43 pitches in the first two innings.

“With Ben (Lundy), one of the things we talk about to him is rhythm,” Hart said. “I thought from his landing foot all the way to releasing the ball, he had really good rhythm. He had some quick, efficient innings because he was pounding the strike zone.

“He was confident. He wanted to make sure that the L-P hitters were uncomfortable in the box. That was the advantage.”

Sauvegeau led the Pirates offense with two doubles and a single, Cheatham added three singles, and Lundy had a triple, a single and three RBIs. Designated hitter Kadon Hearth added a double.

Ottawa and L-P get together for the rubber game of the series back at Veteran’s Park on Thursday.

At King Field, Ottawa

Ottawa 8, La Salle-Peru 2

(Key: AB-R-H-RBI)

L-P (2) —Martyn 2b 3-1-1-0, Ernat lf 3-0-0-1, Moss p-1b 4-0-0-0, Dahl 3-0-0-0, Burris dh 3-1-1-0, Copeland 1b 0-0-0-0, Wolfe cf 0-0-0-0, Rodriguez c 3-0-0-0, Skoog cf-p 2-0-0-0, Lenkaitis rf 3-0-2-1, Weber ss 1-0-0-0. Totals 23-2-4-2.

OTTAWA (8) — Weitzel 2b 4-0-1-1, Hill ss 4-0-1-0, Herzog cf 4-1-1-0, Harth dh 3-1-1-0, Mezel c 0-0-0-0, Wendt 3-0-0-1, Sauvegeau 1b 3-3-3-0, Cheatham lf 3-2-3-0, Lundy p 3-1-2-3, Ruger cr 0-0-0-0, Stevenson 3b 3-0-0-1. Totals 30-8-12-6.

L-P (5-15, 3-7) 100 100 0 — 2 4 2

Ottawa (12-14, 5-6) 010 331 x — 8 12 1

LOB – L-P 7; Ottawa 6; 2B – Sauvegeau 2, Harth. 3B – Martyn, Lundy. SB – Herzog 2. CS – Martyn, Wendt.

La Salle-Peru ip h r er bb k

Moss (L) 4.0 7 4 4 1 2

Skoog 2.0 5 4 3 0 0

Ottawa

Lundy 7.0 4 2 2 4 3