Fast Start, Defense Lifts Baseball to Shutout of Lions
By Leopard Nation
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Published
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Louisville 7, Minerva 0
The Louisville Leopards Varsity Baseball team shutout the visiting Minerva Lions 7-0 Monday Evening. With the win, Louisville improves to 3-5 overall and 2-1 in the NBC.
The Leopards batted around the lineup as they erupted for six runs in the opening inning to take a commanding lead. Tyler Adams, who finished 3-for-3 on the day, led off with the first of his two doubles. Next, Joe Crank singled him home and then stole second after that.
Each of the next four Louisville batters cracked RBI doubles creating a home to second Merry-Go-Round. They included Jake Adams, Stephen Kerzan, Alex Hewitt, & Dalton Deckerd. Three batters later, Reis Rankin’s sacrifice fly to center brought home Deckerd from third to give the Leopards a 6-0 advantage.
Louisville used their defense and rode the arms of Jake Adams (5.2 innings) and Marco Buccasso (1.1 innings) the rest of the way to earn the win. In the fourth inning, the Lions loaded the bases with nobody out. Jake Adams got the next batter to tap a grounder to the mound and he threw home to Deckerd for the force. The next Minerva hitter grounded to Crank at Shortstop. He flipped to Tyler Adams at second who relayed the ball to Hewitt at first for the inning ending 6-4-3 double play.
An inning before, Louisville had used the same double play combination to end a separate Minerva threat. Crank also made a golden glove worthy play at short, Adam Nyland made a diving grab in the outfield, and Hewitt was a brick wall at first base to highlight the Leopards defensive success.
Dalton Hartshorn had a double and finished with 2 of the Lions 4 hits on the day. Tyler Stewart and Connor Wright had the others for Minerva. The Lions stranded 11 base runners for the game.
With the win, Louisville has now won 26 out of the last 28 meetings against Minerva including the last 15 overall. The Leopards have also won 14 consecutive games against the Lions at home.
UP NEXT: The Leopards will next travel to Alliance to take on the Aviators on Tuesday, April 14 at 4:30 PM. JV will host Alliance at the same time.