MTZ Baseball goes 2-1 last week

The Mt. Zion baseball seniors and their families stop for a photo before being announced at the Mt. Zion senior day at the Mt. Zion baseball field.

By BLAKE FAITH
Staff Writer

The Mt. Zion baseball team went 2-1 last week with a win over St. Teresa and a doubleheader split against Effingham.

Against St. Teresa, Braves freshman pitcher Sam Driscoll started his first start of his varsity high school career strong. Driscoll started by striking out his first two batters and got Korley Golladay to hit a fly-out to Kolby Koslofski to end the top of the first inning.

Koslofski led off in the bottom of the first inning and started his night hitting a single. Ethan Hamrick knocked him in two batters later with an RBI double to give the Braves a 1-0 lead.

Both pitchers tossed zero runs in the second and third inning. The Braves’ offense regrouped in the bottom of the fourth. Chase McInerny led off with a single and Drew Hittmeier followed with a double. Gavin McInerny hit the ball into the centerfield gap to bring in two rbis and make the score 3-0.

“You know we pitched the ball really well and we made plays behind Sammy,” Head coach JD Arnold said. “At the plate we struggled a little bit. We’re going to need to get better in that area in order to have some success down the road.”

Driscoll threw another strikeout in the top of the fifth and one more in the sixth. Offensively in the sixth inning, the Braves found themselves with two outs and Evan Hamrick was walked and stole second base.

Koslofski hit a two-out double to bring Evan Hamricjk across home-plate to give the Braves a 4-0 lead. Jackson Beiler knocked in Koslofksi with an RBI single to give the Braves a 5-0 lead.

Driscoll finished off the last inning with a strikeout and a walk. Driscoll finished the game with 12 strikeouts, two walks and a no-hitter.

“He pounded the zone from first pitch of the game to the last pitch of the game,”

Coach Arnold said. “He was in the zone the whole time he was ahead all day so when you’re ahead all day you’re gonna have successes like he did.”

Coach Arnold coached at St. Teresa for several years and he felt different feelings for getting his first career win over St. Teresa at Mt. Zion.

“It feels good to be honest,” Coach Arnold said. “I feel bad for my guys over there. But you know, I feel good for our guys. It’s nice when we’re 2-1 now and we’re starting to move things around in the right direction and you know, it’s a good win for us for sure. Moving forward as the week goes on, hopefully carries us throughout the week.”

The Mt. Zion baseball team improved to 4-3 overall. This week the team will face Rochester, Shelbyville, St. Anthony and Taylorville.