Eagles win own tourney
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Steve Gust
steve@page1publications.com
Sacred Heart rookie head coach Alex Hoff was more than surprised with his team’s offensive explosion in the weekend’s Sacred Heart Invitational baseball tourney.
“I know our guys can hit, but I didn’t expect to score 38 runs using wood bats,” Hoff said. “We had good plate discipline and clutch hitting.”
The Eagles out-scored their opponents 38-12 while beating Drayton-St Thomas (13-4), Kittson County Central (18-6) and the Northern Freeze (7-2).
“We came together as a team,” Hoff said. “This tourney will help our confidence, especially coming off a disappointing loss to Win-E-Mac.”
The top three hitters in the Eagles’ line-up led the offense. Ross Cariveau, Shawn O’Leary and Adam Pietruszewski were as combined 17-of-27 (.630 average) in the three games.
Cariveau led all hitters with a .700 average (7-of-10).
Even the bench players helped the offense. Led by Jordan Yanish and Blake Edwards, the Eagles had four pinch hits in the three-game set.
The Eagles pitchers were nearly as impressive. Brad Marek, Kevin Hatcher and Kyle Novak all earned wins.
Marek started the Eagles on the right foot against Drayton-St Thomas, pitching three scoreless innings while striking out all nine batters he faced.
Hatcher pitched three innings to earn the win in game two, while Novak pitched six innings in the title game. Noval struck out seven, walked one and hit one batter.
John Pribula, Joe Kulas and Jake Zavoral all had solid outings in relief for the Eagles.
The Eagles improved to 4-1 on the season. They will try to avenge an earlier season loss to Win-E-Mac when the Patriots come to town later this week. Win-E-Mac beat the Eagles by 10 the first time the two teams met earlier this season.