Baseball: Ethan Storm’s pitching, Tommy Townsend’s power lead Sycamore past Plano

PLANO – Tommy Townsend’s cap flew off his head on three different occasions while delivering pitches in relief Monday. Earlier, Sycamore teammate Ethan Storm airmailed a few warmup pitches to the backstop.

Very little else went awry for the Spartans, however.

“It’s usually that first warmup pitch, not quite down the middle,” Storm said with a smile. “It just always happens. Then it seems like I’m dialed in.”

[ Photos: Plano vs. Sycamore baseball ]

The Spartans likewise were dialed in, and hardly looked like a team that’s barely been on the baseball diamond this spring.

Storm took a no-hitter into the fourth inning and struck out eight over four innings. Townsend and Jimmy Amptmann both homered in Sycamore’s 10-0 five-inning win over Plano in the Interstate Eight Conference opener.

“Feels good to get out there,” said Townsend, who struck out two in one inning of relief to finish off the game. “We’ve been practicing over a month. We’ve had like 36 practices and three games. Our pitching staff helps us, hitting off our guys, so we were ready.”

Sycamore coach Jason Cavanaugh was glad to see it and happy to just get outside – even in frigid conditions with temperatures in the low 40s. The Spartans (2-1, 1-0) have had eight or nine games postponed or canceled.

“We think we have a good team, it’s just been really frustrating for our players to have all these games scheduled keep getting canceled,” Cavanaugh said. “It’s nice to have an opponent to play today and get a game in and be outside instead of practicing indoors.”

Storm struggled at times to locate his curveball, leaving it up in the zone. But he didn’t need it much, with an overpowering fastball that hit 87 mph in the first inning and sat in the mid 80s throughout.

The Rock Valley College commit finished the first inning with back-to-back strikeouts after a one-out walk, and struck out the side in the second after a leadoff walk. Vinny Maye’s two-out double for Plano in the fourth, after a Sycamore error prolonged the inning, was the lone hit allowed by Storm.

“I was feeling pretty good,” Storm said. “It took me a minute to get my curveball location down, but strike-wise I felt a lot better than the past game. The big thing I’m working on is getting ahead of the count. I could go back to the fastball and work outside.”

Sycamore turned a sparkling play to end the third inning, with Ethan Steele ranging up the middle at shortstop and firing to Townsend, who fully extended to scoop the throw. Storm didn’t need much more help, though.

“It’s hard to hit anybody on an ice cold day, 43 with wind, let alone throwing that hard with command,” Cavanaugh said.

Townsend gave Storm all the offense he needed with two out in the first inning, turning on an 0-1 fastball for a homer to right-center.

“I was just trying to come out here and put a good swing on the ball, hit line drives,” Townsend said. “Elevated and got it up.”

Amptmann reached on a three-base error and scored on Hunter Britz’s bunt single to make it 2-0 in the first inning. The Spartans then blew things open by batting around in a five-run second, with Amptmann’s opposite-field homer to right capping things off for a 7-0 lead.

Plano (2-8, 0-1) did not help its cause against a strong opponent, committing four errors behind starting pitcher Sean Earwood with a number of passed balls. Unfortunately, it followed an early pattern for Plano this season.

“Obviously they’re a quality team,” Plano coach Nate Hill said. “A lot of what was frustrating to me was our mental mistakes, things we are working on. It’s been a struggle at a few positions, struggling to catch the ball, which is a little frustrating because we have a lot of returning guys. Come to the yard each day trying to get better, that’s all we can ask for.”

Hill does have a core to build around this spring. Senior Mason Accidentale came into Monday’s game hitting over .500 in Plano’s first nine games, fellow senior Manny Marin about .400.

“Mason had a really good series down south in St. Louis, a big double last Friday,” Hill said. “He’ll get us going, him and Manny in the middle of the lineup.”

Joey Puleo added two hits with a two-run single in the second inning and Kiefer Tarnoki reached base three times for Sycamore.

“Super excited about this team,” Townsend said. “I feel like this team really has a lot of potential and can make a good run. We have a lot of high hopes to win conference and see what we can from there.”