Late home runs spark Linesville win

By Pete Chiodo

May 8, 2008 May 07, 2008 11:04 pm

— UNION CITY — For the better part of the last two weeks, Linesville’s once-formidable offense looked pretty lifeless.
“I don’t know if we were lazy or nonchalant or what,” said Lions head coach Pat Gould, “but we just were not performing.”
However, on Wednesday, with Linesville trailing Union City 4-0 in the fifth inning, the monster finally woke up. And it woke up hungry.
Over the span of two innings, Linesville accumulated 10 runs on eight hits, including three round-trippers, as the Lions rallied to beat the Bears 10-4.
“You’ve got to hope this was a spark for us,” said Gould, whose team still clings to the top spot in Region 2.
With one game remaining — Maplewood on Monday — the Lions are 12-3 overall and 12-3 in the region. They lead second-place Conneaut Lake, which is 10-3 with a couple games in hand.
Linesville came into yesterday’s game with Union City having lost three of its previous four contests. And it appeared that the Lions were once again in trouble as UC jumped all over the Lions and starting pitcher Tyler Graham.
The Bears (7-10, 7-8 Region 2) put in six runs in the fourth, using a lead-off single by Nick Adams, an RBI double by Brett Smith and a two-run double by Buddy Arnold.
The score remained 4-0 until the top of the fifth when Graham hit a sharp line drive to Arnold, the Bears’ shortstop. Arnold leapt up to snatch the hit, but could only get a little bit of glove on it. Graham was safe, and the door opened just a crack for Linesville. With two outs; Justin Norwood tapped a ground ball with eyes towards the right side of the infield. Then Doug Farley walked to load the bases.
Trevor Litwiler got the Lions on the board with a single up the middle, scoring Graham. Doug Williams watched his first two pitches fall in for strikes, then bared down and battled Union City pitcher Andrew Miller for five or six more pitches. Williams finally found what he wanted and sent a rope into center field, pushing in two more runs and cutting the Bears’ lead to 4-3.
The door was now wide open.
“That’s what we call a ‘quality’ at-bat,” said Linesville catcher Cody Houck, who perhaps appreciated Williams hit more than anyone else, because Houck would follow Williams to the plate. And Houck would rock the first pitch he saw, sending it deep to left, well into the vacant lot outside the Union City campus.
That brought in three runs and gave the Lions a 6-4 lead.
“It was a new count,” said Houck. “I was just waiting for a pitch to hit and it was a fast ball down the middle.”
The homer ended the night for Miller, who up until the fifth had the Linesville offense staggering.
“(Miller) did a great job keeping the ball down,” said Gould. “Everything was at the knees. Its hard to get a good hit when the pitcher keeps it down like that.”
Yet, the pitching change didn’t stop Linesville’s two-out explosion. Cody Norwood followed Houck’s homer with a solo tater to right-center. Jack Sindlinger kept things rolling with a single. And Graham drove him in with a looping double down the right field line.
Union City finally got the third out, but Linesville now led 8-4.
The Lions put in two more runs in the sixth. Justin Norwood led off with a walk, and Farley ejected the day’s third baseball from the park, driving one to straight-away center.
Sindlinger, the Lions’ reliever, made sure the Lions kept the lead. He was credited with seven whole innings in relief. He allowed zero runs on five hits, walked one and fanned nine.
“Jack had a very nice outing,” said Gould.