SIDNEY – Coming off a five-game slide where the Junior Hellcats had plummeted from a once 3-1 start, to being 3-5 overall coming into the game – the Junior Hellcats were in need of the 11-8 win they earned over Sidney on Thursday, June 20.
“We needed a game like this to go our way. We were on a five-game slide and needed a win to boost our momentum into tomorrow,” said Junior Hellcats head coach Nick McCullough. “Sidney has a high reputation of playing good baseball and they didn’t disappoint tonight. Their (Sidney) guys fought til the end.”
The Junior Hellcats rocked the plate with 11 hits for 11 runs – with five of them coming in the second inning to take the 5-0 lead on the road.
“We finally got our bats going in this game. We scored eight runs in four games in Middletown,” said coach McCullough of last weekend’s tournament. “It was great to see them hit. Marcus Cashman was back to his old ways, hitting the ball hard. And Mike (Trevisani) hit well at plate too.”
Cashman finished 2-3 with three runs, with Trevisani finishing 2-3 with two runs and three RBI. Tyler Hagen, Nick Shoemaker, Brad Beckwith, AJ Little, Cameron Birtch, Tom Flanagan, and Justin Bates each recorded a hit at the plate in their at-bats.
The Junior Hellcats secured back-to-back runs in the top of the third and fourth innings – drawing the score to a solid 7-0. That is when Sidney finally was able to strike back in an attempt to defend their home diamond. Sidney snagged two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, the score moved to 7-2 in favor of the Junior Hellcats.
And how does a good team respond to the opposing team smacking in two runs – by driving in four more of their own, obviously.
That is just what the Junior Hellcats did on Thursday, drove in four additional runs in the top of the fifth – they would lead 11-2 as the game looked to be winding down.
Giving up just two runs over six innings – sixth inning was a 0-0 score – Mike Trevisani stole the show for the Junior Hellcats. Trevisani took the win on the mound, producing eight strikeouts, no walks and allowing just five hits to go with the two earned runs.
