Cadets rally in the seventh

Updated: March 29, 2011 11:38AM

Thanks to a four-run bottom of the seventh inning and an Aurora Christian error in right field, Marmion rallied for a 7-6 victory Monday.

Making his first varsity appearance both on the mound and at the plate, Shane Cano was one of several heroes for the Cadets (1-2) whose defense turned double plays to limit the damage in both the third and fourth innings when the visiting Eagles (2-1) had the bases loaded. Cano took the hill with two out and one on in the sixth and hit AC's Mitch Holtz before fielding a grounder to end that inning.

In the bottom half, Cano hustled to first on a grounder which could have ended the inning if not for a throw pulling AC first baseman Austin Penn off the bag. Jordan Meyer's double to left-center then trimmed the Eagles' lead to 6-3.

"Coming into to pitch and being down 6-1, I knew we couldn't give up any more runs. Once I got that ground out and started the seventh with a quick out, I was pretty confident we'd hold them," Cano said.

After opening the seventh with a strikeout, Cano (1-0) got a pair of groundouts to keep the Eagles off the scoreboard for a second straight inning. Marmion catcher Kyle Kozak, who went 2-for-3 with a pair of runs and an RBI, had a one-out single prior to Tim Tarter's double to deep center. That brought Holtz to the mound for Aurora Christian, but after starting off with two called strikes, the junior threw eight consecutive balls to load the bases.

Mike Pipp's ground out scored a run to make it 6-5 and advanced the runners to second and third before Cano cracked a fly ball to right where the Eagles' Brent Minta got a glove on it but was unable to make the catch for a third out, enabling the Cadets to get their last two runs.

"My first hit (in the sixth) gave me confidence I could make contact and with the adrenalin flowing I just wanted to put the ball in play and try to get a second hit," Cano said.

"Obviously I'm proud that we didn't give up," Marmion coach Dave Rakow said. "The way we battled at the end was great. Our pitchers got behind early on, so credit our infielders for some big defensive plays and doing damage control."

In addition to noting Kozak's success, Rakow singled out Tarter for going 2-for-3, with a walk and RBI plus two runs scored.

"I'm glad to contribute and happy we got our first win," Tarter said. "Last year we struggled to get a first win, but now we can be sure more will come. At the plate I knew I'd see a lot of offspeed pitches, so I just laid off the first few and took advantage when they hung a couple curves."

That's not something Aurora Christian starter Bobby Kuntzendorf did often as the Eagles lefty had good command through his four innings during which he yielded one run and scattered five Marmion hits.

"Bobby definitely carried us early on, he threw strikes and kept them off balance, so there's no doubt he's going to be our guy for a lot of wins," Aurora Christian coach Andy Zorger said.

"Unfortunately for us, we stopped putting runs on the board and gave them the sense they were still in the game. Twice we had the bases loaded and got a single run, and instead of being up seven or eight, we let them hang around and once they caught a couple breaks, it became a heartbreaker for us."

The Eagles got a one-out double from Kuntzendorf followed by an RBI single by Josh Haugen before Minta smacked an RBI double to center as part of a two-run first. Minta added an RBI single in the third and another double in the fifth as part of a solid 3-for-4 showing at the plate. Aurora Christian tallied single runs in the third and fourth, plus two in the fifth.

"Our offense did pretty well, you can usually expect to win with six runs but we missed key opportunities for outs and those came back to haunt us because another rule of high school baseball is that no lead is safe," Zorger said.

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