Layoff doesn’t bother Andrean

MUNSTER — With the excessive rain and extreme cold weather conditions creating havoc throughout the region the last month or so, baseball practice has become a premium for most schools.

Andrean came into Monday’s contest against Munster not having practiced in three days. But the layoff didn’t seem to bother the 59ers as they brought all nine batters to the plate in the first inning putting up a five spot en route to a 7-2 victory on the road.

With the win, Andrean (18-4, 7-1 NCC) clinches at least a tie for the Northwest Crossroads Conference title. A victory over Hobart on Wednesday would leave them as the outright champs.

“You go into a game where it is cold, wind blowing in and you think it’s going to be a one to nothing ballgame,” Andean coach Dave Pishkur said. “And then you score five in the first with a good pitcher on the mound and you hope that he just throws strikes.”

Zak Ryan was the starting pitcher and the 5-0 lead after one inning of action was all that he needed as he threw six solid innings, while striking out seven and walked five. Munster (9-12, 2-9 NCC) managed just four hits on a day where the temperature was sub 50-degrees.

“I wish I could leave this field knowing that he (Ryan) dominated that game, but he didn’t,” said Pishkur. “He got behind guys and threw some good breaking and off speed pitches, but he had five walks and he’s better than that. We need him to be better than that.”

Good coaches at good programs never get satisfied with just a win. They are constantly looking to become perfect out on the diamond knowing that a perfect performance can win a state championship down the road, something Andrean is very familiar with.

But in order to correct a few of the issues that Pishkur spotted during Monday’s contest, practice is in order.

“We need some practice days to work on some of these things that we haven’t done, Pishkur said.

To the untrained eye it would have been difficult to spot the issues that Pishkur was referring to.

But what was obvious was that Andrean scored five runs by the two through six spots in the batting order, all reaching base on singles accept Ryan who walked. The four hits in the inning was half of the game total for Andrean that also added some insurance runs in the third and seventh inning, all complements of Jeremy Wright.

Wright finished the game going 1-for-2 with two walks, stolen base and three runs scored.

The Mustangs helped out the 59ers with some spotty defense. An error brought in the last two runs of the first inning.

After leaving runners on the bases and in scoring position but not being able to get the timely hitting, Munster went back-to-back in the fifth and sixth inning to finally get on the board with two runs against Ryan who made way for Cody Haver to finish the game in the seventh.

Haver, after picking up a RBI in the seventh inning by working a walk with the bases loaded, came in and pitched to the minimum batters in the bottom of the seventh inning to close the game out.

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