Sinclair’s Baseball team continues to be strong coming out of the gate to start the season at 12-3, winning ten of their last 11 games. During this 11-game span, one thing seems to stand out among the team: they make the opposing team pay for any kind of error. For example, during a March 8 Sunday double-header against Glen Oaks Community College, Glen Oaks accounted for six errors during nine innings of play. Of the 28 runs that the Tartans piled on, only 20 of them were earned runs. The other eight were due to errors or wild pitches, both of which were plentiful throughout the game. Another perfect example of capitalizing on a mental error was on March 15 when Alex Young, a speedy outfielder who has 11 stolen bases for the year, noticed the catcher was taking his time to get to a ball that was thrown behind him and was able to get to third when he really should have only been able to get to second. The two other games played with Glenn Oaks resulted in victories for the Tartans as well, by a score of 13-2 and 9-5.
The Kellogg Bruins came into town to play two double headers on March 14 and 15. The games on March 14 showed that Sinclair might actually have some competition, as they were beaten rather badly, 13-6 in the first game. Alex Anders surrendered eight runs in less than four innings of work and that is all the Bruins would need even though outfielder Jimmy White was just a home run away from having a cycle in the game.
A player that has really stood out so far this year is Alec Turner, a freshman out of Carlisle, Ohio. Turner has been a pitcher’s worst nightmare so far as he leads the team with 24 hits, 21 RBIs, an average of .510, and is tied alongside with Jimmy White with four homeruns. Over the past weekend in a double header against Kellogg Community College, Turner lit up the field starting out 7 for 7 and ending up 8 for 9 and accounted for five of the 20 RBIs as the Tartans shut down Kellogg. The second game seemed to go very well for Sinclair as the Tartans had a 4-1 lead going into the top of the eighth. The Bruins came back hard with six runs, two in the eighth and four in the ninth. The Tartans would not be denied a victory as shortstop Billy Kidd was the hero in a four-run ninth inning rally by knocking in the winning run with an RBI single.
The following double-header played on Sunday resulted in two lopsided wins where Alec Turner and pitcher Mitch Asman led the way for a 7-1 victory. Turner went 4-4 with an RBI and Asman went seven innings strong, allowing only three hits and one earned run. Asman was also very efficient, throwing 55 strikes out of the 79 pitches he threw. Of the 25 batters he faced, 18 of them went for first pitch strikes.
The second game was not much different as Turner led the team in hits and RBIs with four apiece while Johnny Crawford had a solid five innings on the mound, allowing just three earned runs and receiving the win. Austin Eads came in for relief and did not allow a single run and only gave up one hit as the Tartans ran up the final score to 14-4.
Going into Sunday’s double header, one would think that the Tartans would have a much tougher day considering how they were almost swept on Saturday.
“We did struggle yesterday (March 14). They came out ready to go. They had a couple of guys banged up. Their center fielder and short stop both got hurt in yesterday’s games but that doesn’t take away from what our guys accomplished,” said Coach Dintaman. “We came out aggressive, offensively. We had a great pitching performance from Mitch Asman. Crawford’s pitch count got up a little bit but he made pitches when he had to. Austin Eads did a great job in the bullpen throwing strikes.”
Coach Dintaman goes on to explain how Turner had eight hits in a row and won NJCA player of the week two weeks ago and should receive it the following week. The team is firing on all cylinders right now and is proving that not only can they blow teams out of the water, but also win the close ones. So far in the season, it is hard to see too many weak spots as the team continues on with their season.
Matt Summers
Reporter