Baseball Foxes win two of three

April 30, 2008 03:53 pm

— By CHARLES PENDELL
Sports correspondent
McLEANSBORO — The Hamilton County Foxes baseball squad ran its record to 12-5 this past week.
The Foxes edged their arch rivals from the south, the Eldorado Eagles, 7-6 on April 21.
On April 23, the Foxes clipped the Gallatin County Hawks 17-6 at Junction.
The Foxes returned to Rod Karcher Field on April 24, where the Carmi Bulldogs escaped with a 6-4 victory.

Foxes 7, Eldorado 6
Fox coach Jeff Gray sent junior pitcher David Hunt to the mound against Eldorado, and the right-hander kept the Eagles off balance, striking out two, walking two and scattering eight hits with two errors behind him.
The Foxes' defense backed up Hunt with two double plays, and the Eagles did not score after the third inning.
Eldorado scored twice in the first, but the Foxes tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the inning.
The Eagles went up 6-2 in the top of the third, but the Foxes scored two runs in the bottom of the third and squeezed three more across in the sixth inning.
The Foxes rapped out 15 hits on the day. Senior Tanner Spicuzza smacked a two-run home run over the left-field fence and added a double and three RBIs.
Teammate Orry Taylor had two singles and one RBI, while junior Kane Smith slammed three singles, a double and one RBI, senior Brody Mitchell had three singles, Zeb Gidcumb had a double and two RBIs, and Luke Bowman, Caleb Kirsch and Rhet Vaughan each had a single.
“We started out pretty sluggish against Eldorado," Gray said. “We didn’t field the ball very well in the first few innings, and they got six on us real quick, but I was probably more proud of the kids that game than I have been all year for the simple fact that they stayed in the ball game and kept playing. They got a run here and there and got back within two and then got a couple of breaks and scored three runs in the sixth and pulled out a good victory. It’s always a plus when we beat Eldorado.”

Foxes 17, Gallatin County 6
Against Gallatin County, Spicuzza picked up the win on the hill, going four innings, with backup from sophomore Robert Rubenacker, who came in in the fifth inning to shut the door on the home-standing Hawks. Spicuzza struck out six, walked three and gave up three hits; Rubenacker struck out one and allowed two hits.
The Foxes blasted 18 hits while scoring 17 runs.
Brody Mitchell, a senior southpaw, smacked a single, double and home run with five RBIs. He hit his home run in the fourth inning over the fence, then hit a stand-up double that hit the fence — also in the fourth — and bounced over.
Fox teammate Brandon Webb had three singles and one RBI, Bowman had a single and double, Smith two singles and three RBIs, Vaughan two singles, Taylor a single and RBI, Cal Muehlenbein a single, Spicuzza a double and two RBIs, Justin Barnard a double and two RBIs, Gidcumb a single, and Kirsch a double and two RBIs.
The Foxes scored nine runs in the third inning and eight in the fourth on their way to the five-inning win, which was called by the 10-run rule.
“We played OK in this contest," Gray said. “It wasn’t anything outstanding. They didn’t throw their best, but they threw someone that threw slow and it took us a couple of innings to adjust to it. Once we did that, we started teeing off, hitting the ball pretty well.”

Carmi 6, Foxes 4
Against Carmi, senior right-hander Orry Taylor (4-1) suffered his first loss of the season. Taylor struck out eight Carmi batters, walked five and had six errors behind him while allowing eight hits. Carmi stranded seven runners on base.
Carmi scored four runs in the second inning and two in the fifth, while the Foxes chipped away with a run in the third, two in the fourth and one in the fifth. The Foxes left 10 runners on base.
The Foxes left the tying runs on base late in the contest.
Hamilton County had six hits against Carmi. Spicuzza and Brandon Webb each had a single and RBI, Smith, Vaughan, Bowman and Brody Mitchell each had a single, and Kirsch and Gidcumb each had an RBI.
“Orry pitched against Carmi and did an excellent job,” Gray said. “Orry and I talked, and we think he made four mistakes; he left the ball up in the zone and they hit them hard. Other than that, Orry pitched well. He had a good change-up and a good breaking pitch. After the third inning, he gave up only one hard-hit ball.
"We played well against Carmi, but so did they against us. The way baseball goes, sometimes the ball finds holes and other times it doesn’t. Fortunately for them it did. We hit some balls hard that were hit right at people.
"You never want to get beat, but if you take anything good out of a loss, take the fact that we played against Carmi, who is one of the better teams in the south, and we came away thinking we should have won the game.
"We missed a lot of opportunities early in the game with a lot of guys on base, but we stayed in it and played and they just came out on top. We can’t fault the kids' effort.”
Today (Thursday), the Foxes (12-5) entertain Elkville at Rod Karcher Field and finish up the week at Carterville on Friday.

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