Martin Oil and Tyrone Legion went toe-to-toe at Bellwood’s Stadium Drive Field on Saturday. In the first of two regular season games this season, Tyrone Legion jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, only to have Martin Oil come back in the middle innings to put four runs on the scoreboard in the third inning and four more an inning later to coast to an 8-4 triumph.
Taking a page from Martin Oil’s book, Tyrone Legion put two markers on the board in the top of the first before the home club even had a chance to bat. Playing their first game at home, Martin Oil had jumped out to a lead in the first inning in each of their first four games, all on the road, although the last two were suspended until later by the recent area rains.
Justin Schopp led off the game for Tyrone Legion by drawing a walk from Martin Oil starter Kyle Drost. Tyrone starter Tyler Golden singled and both runners advanced a base on a wild pitch. Jamie Levinson also walked to load the bases for clean-up hitter Brock Anders. The 16-year old catcher wasted little time in delivering, lining the second pitch into left center field for a two-run single that scored both Schopp and Golden for a quick two-zip lead.
Drost was able to minimize the damage with a the help of a double play, started by Martin Oil catcher Blaze Winterstein on a chopper in front of the plate by Shayne Tate. With the bases loaded and still nobody out, Winterstein hopped out in front of the plate to glove the one hopper, stepped back to tag home plate, then fired to Garrett Rabold at first to complete the twin killing. Rabold then took care of Doug Morrow’s grounder all by himself for the final out of the inning.
Troy Brunner came on to pitch for Martin Oil to begin the second inning. Brunner tossed shutout ball for three innings, before Tyrone Legion turned a walk to Tyler Conrad, doubles by Schopp and Levinson and a sacrifice fly by Golden into a pair of runs to slice the deficit in half to 8-4. Chris Alley pitched the final two stanzas for Martin Oil, allowing only an infield single in the sixth and pitching around two seventh-inning errors by his teammates, with four strikeouts and no walks. Brunner picked up the win, allowing two runs on four hits, with five strikeouts and one base on balls.
Tyler Golden shut down Martin Oil without a hit over the first two innings, although he threw a lot of pitches and walked three batters.
In the third inning, Earnie Kelley singled with one down, and Brandon Beech was hit by a pitch. Drost singled to get Kelley home and put Martin Oil on the board. Beech scored on an error. Brunner singled and Chris Alley drove in Drost with a sac fly. A single by Chad Coho scored Brunner with the fourth run of the frame.
“Tyler Golden has pitched every game for us this,” said Tyrone Legion manager Mike Boytim. “I think today, it caught up with him. The second time through the order Martin Oil was able to get their bats on the ball pretty well. I pitched Tyler today, because Martin Oil had a lot of success against Jamie Levinson last year. Jamie wasn’t on full rest and it showed.
“I felt confident in Schopp, Golden, Levinson, Anders and Hertzler at the top of our lineup, but without Tyler Gillmen and Tyler Hoover today, it made the rest of the lineup a little less strong. With those two in the middle and Hertzler and Anders lower, we have a stronger overall attack. It was nice to see Tyler Conrad contribute, starting the rally in the fifth by getting on base on a walk.”
Alex Miller singled to open the Martin Oil fourth, stole second base and scored on a base hit by Kelley. Following a Beech single, Brunner scored Kelley with an infield hit, and Alley completed the scoring with a single that brought Brunner home.
Brock Anders tossed two strong innings for Tyrone Legion to finish the game, giving up no runs on two hits with one strikeout and no walks.
“Brock coming in and giving us two great innings in relief was really big for us,” said Boytim. “We don’t have much pitching depth, if Brock can be a good relief pitcher, that will really help us.”
Schopp and Levinson had the only extra-base hits for Tyrone Legion and Schopp was the only Tyrone player with multiple hits.
“The first four games we had been jumping at people right off the get-go and scoring runs,” noted Martin Oil manager Ed Davis. “Today we were real sluggish, it took awhile to get the bats started. Fortunately, out pitching was pretty strong today. Kyle started off in the first, but unfortunately came up with a sore arm. We had to bring Troy in to relieve and he gave us four real nice innings. Then Chris Alley closed it down for us. We have used Chris pretty much exclusively in the closer role this year so far, and he had done a really nice job.”
Kelley, Drost, Brunner and Miller each had two hits for Martin Oil. After three complete games, Martin Oil has hit the ball at a .400 (36-for-90) clip with nine extra-base hits and 17 stolen bases.
“The bats have really been coming around for us,” explained Davis. “Earnie had a good day with a couple hits. Kyle and Troy both had two hits and that’s a big plus. Alex Miller had a couple hits down at the end of the lineup. All-in-all, it was a pretty good game.”
On Sunday, Martin Oil faced Corproal Miller, one of the three undefeated federation teams (Barkman Oil 4-0, Martin Oil 3-0, Corporal Miller 1-0) at Bellwood. Following nearly the same scenario as a day earlier, Martin Oil fell behind early, then came roaring back to pile up runs in the middle innings to take an 8-2 victory, despite committing five errors.
With Earnie Kelley on the mound for Martin Oil, Cpl. Miller scored an unearned run in the top of the second and got a second tally in the third on a double by Andy Criste.
Martin Oil knotted the score in the bottom of the second, took the lead in the third and then iced the win with four more in the fourth and one in the fifth.
Chris Alley and Chad Coho opened the second inning with singles. A double steal put both runners in scoring position. Alex Miller walked with one out to load the bases. Dustin Harris’ sharp single scored Alley to tie the score.
In the third, Troy Brunner beat out an infield hit. Alley and Coho singled to load the bases. Blaze Winterstein scored Brunner with a base hit and Miller’s fielders choice brought home Alley with the go-ahead tally.
Earnie Kelley turned in Martin Oil’s first complete-game effort, allowing just one earned run, scattering seven hits with seven strikeouts and only two walks.
“Seems like the four away games we played, the guys came out in the first inning and got two or three runs-we got eight up at Park Furniture. Then in the first two games here at home, we want to wait until the third or fourth inning before we get started.
“Fortunately, Earnie was in control of the game pretty much the whole way. We were very fortunate considering we booted the ball around five times. You can’t afford to do that against a good team like Cpl. Miller. You can’t give them five errors, what helped us today, was that they booted the ball around themselves (four errors). You just can’t do that consistently and win.”
Martin Oil stole seven more bases and now has 24 in four games. Chris Alley led the way with three hits in four at-bats, and Brandon Beech, Troy Brunner and Chad Coho each had two hits.
“Our hitting did come around real good. Dustin Harris got a big hit to get us going, tying the score in the second, Troy had a couple hits, Beech had a couple nice hits, Alley had three, Coho had a couple hits-I still wasn’t pleased with our defense. We have to improve on that if we want to continue to win.
