Scarlets Baseball Has Unfinished Business in 2014
The top-ranked East Scarlets baseball team beat #10 Urbandale 4-1 on June 19.
Last year the mantra was “All Gas, No Brakes” and the East High baseball team rode it all the way to the semifinals of the state tournament before the tank ran dry. With the engine of that team returning intact this summer the backs of the t-shirts now read “Unfinished Business.”
So far, so good. Going into yesterday’s matchup at home with Urbandale the Scarlets were 13-2 and as of the latest rankings, had regained the top spot in the state polls.
On Wednesday the team had spent its top two pitchers, seniors Colby Carmichael and Robert Hansen, in a doubleheader sweep of Ottumwa. A pair of aces can get you a long way in a one-game-at-a-time tournament scenario but winning streaks during the dog days of the regular season require depth on the mound and East has it. Sophomore Jeremy Bentley is a sidewinding southpaw and he served immediate notice to the Jayhawks on Thursday that if they were expecting to catch a break thanks to where the game fell in the Scarlet pitching rotation they were wrong. His first three pitches of the game were all taken for strikes and away the #1 team went.
In the bottom of the 1st the fleet Malique Ziegler led off with a ringing double and later scored on a sacrifice fly by sparkplug shortstop Connor Enochs to provide a lead that Bentley would not relinquish.
In the 4th he fanned the side but generally he threw strikes and pitched to contact, a wise game plan given the airtight defense deployed behind him. The team is particularly strong up the middle with Enochs at short, Ryan Kramer at 2B and Ziegler in center. All three flashed good gloves in the methodical 4-1 triumph over a team that also came into the game ranked among the state’s best at #10. Bentley went the distance for the win.
Enochs manufactured an insurance run almost by himself in the 5th when he beat out an infield hit, drew a wild pickoff throw that advanced him to second, stole third and trotted home on a sacrifice fly by Hansen. Call it a home run with some assembly required.
Carmichael and Ziegler are both bound for Northern Illinois next year to continue their baseball apprenticeships. And it would appear the well-armed team they lead is bound for a return to Principal Park where the dream of a state title was interrupted last summer. Interrupted, but not ended.
The nightcap of the twinbill was washed out by an impressive thunderstorm, the second downpour of the afternoon that rained on the visitors.
Photos from East vs. Urbandale Baseball Game
