Warriors remain dominant
April 20, 2008
By brandon mangia For The Courier News
ELGIN -- Dominating pitching and a high-powered offense have been Westminster Christian's recipe for success all year long.
The formula worked wonders once again on Saturday as the Warriors swept a doubleheader against Private School League foe
Chicago Christian 10-0 and 11-0. The sweep marks the fourth consecutive game in which Westminster has shut out its opponent.
"We try to emphasize pitching and defense, but to have this type of offense is just a huge bonus," said Warriors coach
Jeff Moeller. "It makes a big difference."
Westminster's offense combined for 23 hits on the day, 13 of which were for extra bases. Defensively,
Westminster made no errors and came up with some dazzling plays on the infield. Shortstop Cory Hodge, who will be playing
for Elgin Community College next year, had eight putouts on the day, one which prevented a run from scoring in Game 1.
"The one thing we've been emphasizing lately has been stepping up our defense," Moeller said. "Our defense, at the beginning
at of the year, was kind of sloppy because we didn't have much time on the field. Now our defense has toughened up and it's
really helped us."
Senior Casey Schuring and junior Brandon Siewert led the offensive attack and starred on the mound for the Warriors (11-3,
5-0) in its six-inning Game 1 win. Schuring started and pitched four shutout innings to get the win and improve his record
to 3-0, and also collected three hits. Meanwhile, Siewert had three hits of his own and preserved the shutout by getting out
of jams in the fifth and sixth innings when the Knights (6-9, 3-4) had runners in scoring position with less than two outs.
"He's one of those kids that we've been using as a starter, not too much as a reliever," Moeller said of Siewert. "He kind
of takes some time to get warmed up. He came out a little slow and was leaving some balls up but really came back strong."
Senior Ben Palmer (3-1) dominated Game 2. The Warriors ace struck out 10 batters for a two-hit complete-game win, dropping
his ERA to less than 0.50.
"First-pitch strikes were definitely the key for me today," said Palmer, who also went 2-for-3 at the plate. "As soon as
I got ahead I could throw my own pitch and didn't have to throw a hitters' pitch, so it was good. I could just throw it and
even if they did hit it, I knew our defense would make a play."
It looked to be a pitchers' duel early until Westminster broke a scoreless tie in the top of the fifth with seven runs
off Knights starter Ryan Baas. After getting hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, senior Ryan Donahue drove in the final
run of the inning as the Warriors batted around in the fifth.
"We've got a pretty tough lineup," Moeller said "We have five guys hitting over .400 and four guys slugging over .700.
That's how we've been playing lately."
