Ottawa explodes for 10 runs in 7th to pull away from La Salle-Peru

LA SALLE – The La Salle-Peru baseball team was building momentum in the bottom of the sixth inning Wednesday.

Having already scored one run in the frame, the Cavaliers had the bases loaded with one out when two Ottawa fielders bumped into each other, allowing a pop-up to fall in shallow left field.

However, Ottawa pitcher Adam Swanson induced a ground ball to the right side. Pirates second baseman George Shumway scooped it up and flipped it to Colt Bryson, who fired to first base for an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.

“It’s always great to get out of a bases-loaded jam, especially on a double play,” Swanson said. “That got us a lot of energy to roll into the top of the seventh.”

The Pirates converted that energy into a 10-run seventh inning as they pulled away for a 14-3 victory at Huby Sarver Field to tie their Interstate 8 Conference series with the Cavs at one game each.

“I think it was just the momentum with how the bottom of the sixth ended,” Ottawa coach Levi Ericson said about the 10-run seventh. “We made an error to load the bases with one out, and then we roll a double play. You could just tell the energy coming off the field right then. The boys were fired up and we said, ‘Whatever it takes, let’s bust it open.’ Props to the kids, they did it.”

The Pirates sent 16 batters to the plate in the final inning, recording seven hits and taking advantage of three L-P errors.

Bryson, Swanson and Jace Veith each scored two runs and drove in a run in the seventh. Swanson ripped an RBI triple in his second at-bat and Veith had a run-scoring double in his second trip to the plate.

Brendyn Fuchs, Harry Carretto, Jacob Rosetto and Jaxon Cooper also drove in runs during the seventh.

“We started off with a couple hits, got the energy going and everything just started rolling,” Swanson said. “We had confidence at the plate and were stringing hits together.”

The Pirates scored the 10 runs against L-P’s bullpen.

“I thought the seventh inning was kind of a microcosm of the entire game,” said L-P coach Matt Glupczynski, who agreed the double play in the sixth was a big momentum shifter. “I didn’t think we were very sharp the entire game. We battled. We made it close. But we took terrible angles in the outfield. We weren’t backing up on throws from the outfield. We couldn’t hit a cut. Our infield made a couple errors. Offensively, for a while there we didn’t really have an approach at the plate.”

Swanson returned to the mound for the seventh and struck out two batters with a walk in between before giving way to Noah Marvin, who struck out the only batter he faced.

Swanson gave up three runs (two earned) on six hits with seven strikeouts, one walk and a hit batter in 6⅔ innings.

“I pitched pretty good,” Swanson said. “I threw a lot of fastballs. I was getting swing and misses with it. I was not trying to pitch too cute. I was OK with ground balls and fly balls as long as we were getting outs.”

The Pirates gave Swanson early runs support with two runs in the first on a two-run double by Carretto and another pair in the second on a two-run single by Cooper.

“We’ve been bad at the plate,” Ericson said. “[Tuesday] was a really, really good practice for us, and it showed. We came out in the first and hit the ball around in the second. It took us into then seventh to break it open, but overall we did everything that we’ve emphasized that we haven’t been doing. Our approaches were a lot better at the plate.”

The Cavs responded with a run in each the first and second innings before pulling within a run in the sixth on an RBI single by Braylin Bond.