By Ryan Hines
rhines@dailystandard.com When Brian Gagle steps on the baseball field, fans usually epect to see the Celina senior roaming centerfield and batting leadoff for the Green and White.
Gagle added another way to hurt opposing teams on Thursday night when he stepped on the mound and dominated the Parkway Panthers, 10-0 in a six-inning affair.
Gagle went the distance for the Bulldogs scattering five hits while striking out three. With the Parkway hitters struggling to time Gagle, the Bulldogs infield did most of the rest turning 12 Panther ground balls into outs.
“I was only going to let him throw 60 pitches but he told me that he was fine to go in the sixth inning too but he didn’t walk a batter and pitched a great game for us,” said Celina head coach Bruce Boley. “Brian mixed speeds on his fastball, threw strikes and we got great play from our infield. ... throw strikes and play good defense and you’ll win a lot of games.”
“He (Gagle) threw first-pitch strikes and then got our guys to chase his pitches when we were in the hole,” said Parkway head coach Eric Stachler. “He went right after us and had us confused in the box.”
With Gagle cruising on the mound, Celina picked up the offense in the third inning by benefiting from mistakes on the Parkway defense.
Celina sophomore Jordan Heuker, batting in the nine-hole, started the Bulldogs offense with a single which was then followed by two consecutive errors on the Parkway pitcher.
Tyler Painter misfired on consecutive throws with the first going to second base, on a pick-off attempt, and then on a throw to first following a Celina sacrifice attempt.
Scott Boley followed with an RBI double before another Parkway error and wild pitch added up to a five-run Celina inning.
Celina’s Doug Vorhees reached first on the fourth Parkway error of the game to lead off the fourth inning and Heuker came up with his second hit of the game to put runners at first and second with no outs.
After the third and final Parkway error moved Kyle Anderson, who was running for Vorhees, and Heuker up one base, Gagle sent a deep sacrifice fly bringing Anderson home and moving Heuker to third base giving Celina a 6-0 lead.
Eric Braun helped plate the final run of the fourth inning when he reached on an infield hit and then perfectly executed a doublesteal by swiping second base with Heuker scoring easily from third base putting the Bulldogs on top, 7-0.
Gagle started the final rally for Celina in the sixth inning with a screaming liner to left-centerfield. Braun drew a walk before Scott Boley ripped a double down the left-field line scoring Gagle while moving Braun to third base.
With two outs in the sixth inning, Geise delivered the lethal blow for the Green and White with a double to deep leftfield which scored Braun and Boley providing for the 10-run lead and and end to the game.
“We took advantage of our opportunities tonight,” said Boley refering to Parkway’s five errors in the game. “Parkway threw the ball around a little bit and we capitalized and took advantage of those situations.”
“We had four errors in our first game and a lot tonight and it’s almost like we have guys out there that don’t know what’s going on,” explained Stachler. “That’s definitely a concern for me but it’s early in the season and we have time to correct that and make some adjustments.”
Scott Boley’s two doubles paced the Celina offense while Heuker and Garrett Gray each added two singles. |
