Kozak, Friel pace Marmion past Montini

Updated: April 7, 2011 4:04PM

Kyle Kozak battered the psyche of the Montini Broncos for the second consecutive day and Tyler Friel tortured it as the Marmion Cadets shut out their Suburban Christian Conference Blue rival 3-0 Tuesday in Aurora.

Friel tossed a two-hitter while Kozak hit his second three-run home run in as many days against the Broncos, a game-winning shot in the bottom of the sixth inning.

"Tim Tarter pitched (Monday) against them for us and I was taking notes from him and he kept the ball low and he didn't seem to have a problem," Friel said. "They had one hit off him, so I was keeping it low, keeping them off guard."

Friel, a 6-foot-3, 205-pound senior, controlled the entire strike zone by mixing four pitches. Kozak was able to call for a fastball, curve, changeup or forkball on any count and Friel delivered to the tune of eight strikeouts and one walk. This after working two perfect innings of relief over the weekend against Sandwich

"He looked great today," Kozak said of his starter. "On Saturday he threw two quick innings, looked unbelievable, hit all his spots, six up six down and carried that over. He had everything working."

For Montini (5-3, 0-2), right-hander Ben Dobosenski matched Friel zero-for-zero for five innings before Jordan Meyer led off the sixth with a single. After Travis Siwiec flied out to right, Andy Young walked to bring up Kozak.

With two men on and his pitcher dealing, Kozak knew one run could win the game. Looking first pitch fastball, he got it, and lifted it over the left centerfield fence.

"It was right in my wheelhouse," Kozak said. "I got it up a little bit and the wind carried it. I've been feeling real good at the plate but I had an awful first at-bat, looked at three strikes, so I was looking forward to it. I was excited. I got up there and was ready to go."

Friel (2-1) was allowed to make the call on whether he finished the game after throwing 78 pitches through six innings, but the big right hander wasn't going to leave it in any other hands. After Montini's Tom Ruopp reached on a one-out triple, Friel got Mike Howard to line out to short and he struck out Brendan Loftus to end the game.

"You try and manufacture if you can, but when there's two outs and you don't have anybody on it takes away a lot of things you can do," Montini coach Bill Leeberg said. "We didn't have too many guys. Before the last inning we only had one hit. (Friel) had excellent control. If you do that in high school baseball, you have a chance."

The victory is the fourth in the row for the Cadets, who are now 6-3 overall and 3-0 in the SCC.

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