Slicers stumble out of the gate

Updated: April 2, 2011 9:24AM

There are a lot of adjectives that get thrown around every year to explain the odd outcomes that tend to happen on opening day - nervous, over-excited, jittery, rusty, inexperienced, to name just a few.

But LaPorte coach Scott Upp had a new one Thursday evening after his sixth-ranked Slicers were thumped 10-0 in five innings by No. 7 Penn.

"We played awful complacent today," Upp said after watching his team commit five errors, misplay a couple other balls and muster just two hits. "That's not something we really anticipated."

Maybe it was the cold weather. Maybe it was first-day nerves. Maybe it was because three seniors - ace Connor Podkul, catcher Kyle Upp and infielder Sean Rogers - were suspended for the first two games of the season for undisclosed reasons.

For whatever reason, the Slicers looked less than thrilled to be out there for their annual showdown with fellow perennial contender and potential regional foe Penn.

"We didn't come out with as much energy as we should," said senior left-hander Jake Eaton. "And that's not Slicer baseball."

Eaton was thrown right into the fire because of Podkul's absence. He gave up a long home run to Miami of Ohio-bound Max Andresen in the first inning, and another solo shot to Valparaiso University-bound Kyle Schneider in the third.

But he was really undone by his defense. Three routine fly balls in the outfield were misplayed into extra bases. Eaton had an error himself on a two-out infield single by Penn's Alex Hostetler that allowed two runs to score in the second inning.

Three more errors in the fourth led to a decisive five-run inning for the Kingsmen (1-0).

"We just need to pick it up defensively and eliminate those errors," Eaton said. "We could have made it a pretty close ball game if we eliminated some of that. And I hung some of my pitches, too."

Eaton allowed nine runs - five earned - on seven hits in 31

3 innings before coming out for Tommy Snyder. Down 9-0 in the bottom of the fifth, Snyder got the first two Penn batters out before pinch-hitter Joe Weller laced a double and was driven home by a single by Caleb Birkey that triggered the 10-run rule.

Upp refused to use the suspensions as an excuse, as Eaton will be a go-to guy all season as the Slicers' No. 2 starter. He said he had no qualms about putting Eaton out there against a team of Penn's caliber right away.

"He's going to have to pitch in those games all year," Upp said. "Just because Connor Podkul didn't pitch in the first game doesn't mean Jake Eaton can't handle it. He's going to have to, because we play in a pretty tough conference and day in and day out we're going to face some pretty tough competition."

Meanwhile, LaPorte's batters were baffled by Penn ace Tyler Thompson, who gave up just one hit and struck out three in four scoreless innings.

The lone bright spot for LaPorte (0-1) was freshman second baseman Francis Silfa, who looked smooth in the field and reached base both times he was up - on an error and a base hit.

The rest - with a lackluster effort, an infield of all-new varsity starters and a first-year starter on the mound - didn't go at all as Upp had hoped.

Though he didn't appear shocked, either.

"We knew a little bit that we had the potential to do this," he siad. "This is going to happen, so we just want to get it out of our system early, know what we need to work on. We obviously didn't anticipate playing like we did. But believe it or not, I think we all believe we can turn it around. It's game No. 1."

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.