Sports
Baseball: Mustangs Tamed by Mount Carmel
Mount Carmel 8, Evergreen Park 2. Kelly in command as Caravan roll in non-conference baseball matchup.
Touching All the Bases: Mount Carmel's Frank Kelly (1-0) started his first game Wednesday. He was in command and found the strike zone all afternoon to stymie the Evergreen Park offense in an 8-2 Caravan victory.
Mustang starting pitcher Ben Modesitt went four strong innings, only allowing three runs to the Chicago Tribune’s fourth-ranked team. Often, the fundamentals eluded the Mustangs. In the fifth, the Mustangs allowed Tyler Laurisch to score when a check to first base was thrown away. That made the score 4-1.
Evergreen Park closed within 4-2 when Jonathan Ottenfeld scored on a Mount Carmel error when Kyle Bock popped the ball up. However, with men on second and third, the scoring threat ended when Kelly struck out Kevin Schwer and got Dan Cronin to ground out.
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“Coach (Brian) Hurry just told me to go out there and throw strikes and put it down on the plate,” Kelly said. “And let the fielders do the work. We had great fielding.”
The Caravan offense was deadly, led by first baseman Jeff Boehm. He knocked in three runs. Shortstop Jerry Houston had two RBIs for Mount Carmel.
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Patch’s MVP: Mount Carmel starting pitcher Frank Kelly (6.1 innings pitched, 5 strikeouts, 2 hits).
Mount Carmel Leaders: First baseman Jeff Boehm (2-for-4, 3 RBIs), shortstop Jerry Houston (2-for-5, 2 RBIs).
Evergreen Park Leaders: Starting pitcher Ben Modesitt (4 innings pitched, 6 strikeouts). Junior Bobby McAvoy and senior Jonathan Ottenfeld each scored for the Mustangs.
Quotable I: Evergreen Park starting pitcher Ben Modesitt on the need to play deeper into games: “I threw 80 pitches through 4 innings. That has to get down. Last year, I had a game where I threw 86 pitches through 7 innings.”
Quotable II: Mount Carmel starting pitcher Frank Kelly on his team’s 5-0 start: “Coach Hurry’s all about being loose. He tells us, ‘Don’t buy into the rankings, and don’t listen to any of that. Just play our game.’ We’ve really bought into that, I think.”
Team Records: Evergreen Park is 1-2. Mount Carmel is 5-0.
What’s Next: Evergreen Park plays Morgan Park on Friday and Peotone on Saturday.
