Baseball: Spivey, Rich Central Stymie Bloom Township

Touching All the Bases: Rich Central pitcher Garrett Spivey went the distance in a 5-2 baseball victory over Bloom on Thursday. Spivey allowed two runs, both unearned, and helped the Olympians pick up their second win in a row after dropping three straight.

Rich Central loaded the bases with just one out in the bottom of the first inning against Blazing Trojans pitcher Brian Hankey. The Olympians were able to scratch a run across on Ryan Calvin’s infield hit that scored Brandon Fowler.

The Blazing Trojans took a 2-1 lead in the top of the second thanks to two errors by the Olympians. Then,  with runners on first and second, Spivey appeared to have Hankey out on a pickoff attempt, but in the rundown Spivey threw wild to third baseman Matt Cole allowing Hankey to score. Renato Perez then singled to score Justin Hernandez.

That was all the Blazing Trojans would get off of Spivey as he gave up just two walks the rest of the way. The Olympian offense came right back. They scored two runs in the second and tacked on two more runs in the third for insurance.  In the second, Nick Collins grounded out, scoring Kyle Clark.  Then, with Matt Cole at the plate, Elijah McNutt scored on a wild pitch. In the third, Spivey led off with a single and scored on Fowler’s triple. Clark added an infield hit that scored Fowler.

Patch’s MVP: Garrett Spivey, Rich Central.  Spivey did it both at the plate and on the mound. He threw a complete game, giving up two runs on two hits to improve to 4-0. He also had a hit and scored a run.

Rich Central Leaders: Kyle Clark went 2-for-2 with a stolen base, RBI and he scored a run. Ryan Calvin went 1-for-3 with a RBI, and Jordan Smith went 1-for-3 with a RBI.

Bloom Township Leaders: Justin Hernandez had a hit, scored a run and reached another time on an error. Pitcher Brian Hankey went six innings, giving up five runs, just three being earned, on six hits.

Quotable I: “I thought Brian (Hankey) pitched well enough to give us a chance to win, but you can’t give a good team runs,” Bloom Township coach Job Gunderson said.

Quotable II: “We have been emphasizing being better on defense, and we did a good job today,” Rich Central coach Corey Stallings said.

Team Records: Rich Central improved to 16-4-1 and 10-2 in the Southland Athletic Conference, while Bloom Township dropped to 6-16.

What’s Next: Rich Central will host Shepard at 11 a.m. on Saturday, while Bloom Township will travel to Lincoln-Way North for a 10 a.m. Saturday game.

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