May 29, 2010
Indians devour Friendswood, 17-0
Cody Pastorella
The Port Arthur News
BAYTOWN — BAYTOWN -- A 30-minute lightning delay gave all the spark the Port Neches-Groves Indians' bats needed to get back into their regional semifinal series with the Friendswood Mustangs on Friday night at Sterling High School's Kluch Field.
Blake Reyenga rocked a 3-run triple in the second inning, a 3-run triple in the third inning, and a 2-run single in the fourth inning to lead the Indians to a 17-0 victory in Game 2 of this best-of-three series that will continue today at 2 p.m. in Baytown.
The winner will meet Brenham or Friendswood in the regional finals of the Class 4A state baseball tournament. Brenham leads 1-0 in that series, which will continue at 9 a.m. today at Rice University.
http://panews.com/sports/x2023225448/Indians-devour-Friendswood-17-0 PN-G manager Jay Stone was not completely sure but felt confident that Reyenga's eight runs-batted-in was a school record. In all, the senior left fielder went 3-for-4 with a walk and also scored a run in the third inning. The Tribe collected seven runs in that frame and sent 12 batters to the plate.
PN-G took a 5-0 lead in the second inning that started with a single from Chris Sweetenham. Then 30 minutes later, Spencer DeRon jogged to first for one of Friendswood's 12 walks in the contest. Later in the second, Collin Gizzy walked to load the bases for Brandon Provost, who powered a fly ball to center to score Sweetenham for the game's first run.
Also in that column, Amir Jalali reached base on an error and then Austin Stone singled to score DeRon, giving the Tribe a 2-0 lead. That set up Reyenga's first base-clearing triple.
"I was just seeing the ball good tonight," said Reyenga who will take the hill in today's game. "I felt good hitting before the game."
Reyenga said he did not realize he had so many RBIs until after his third at-bat. He did strand two runners in the fifth when he flied out to second base. Regardless, it was No. 12's night. He said he is hoping his hitting will carry over into Game 3. The southpaw added that he hopes to pitch just as well as he hit in Game 2. PN-G suffered a 6-3 loss after eight innings in the series opener.
Austin Stone was the winning pitcher on Friday. He completed all five innings en route to improving his record to 5-2 on the year. The junior righty fanned seven, allowed five hits and walked only two.
The victory sends the Tribe's overall record to 25-11 and drops Friendswood to 22-14. The Mustangs had one player reach third after a single from Jordan Gibbs worked Kennemer around from first base. Kennemer hit a 2-out single to start a rally that ammounted to nothing.
Friendswood also had two hits in the second inning but Kyle Singleton was picked off at second after his lead-off double. With one out, Tyler Sullivan drew a walk. Then with two outs, Michael Goodwin singled to give his team runners at first and second but Stone rolled Michael Speck into a 6-to-3 put out to end the frame.
Stone struck out at least one batter in every inning, including the first and third outs in the fifth. He had sat down four on strikes over the final two frames. He hurled 50 strikes in 73 pitches. No Mustangs reached base more than once.
Jay Stone said Austin was outstanding and may have enough in the tank to give the Indians an inning in today's decisive matchup.
The Indian boss also said that Game 1 pitcher Chris Sweetenham could possibly fire a few from the mound if necessary.
Junior pitcher Alex Anderson will be on call as well for the Indians, who had standout games from Gizzy and Sweetenham on Friday. Gizzy went 1-for-2 with four runs scored, four RBIs, including a 2-run blast in the fifht inning to lift the Tribe's lead to 17-0.
Gizzy laced a liner off Mustangs' Brandon Hollier's glove at shortstop in the big third inning. That plated DeRon and Sweetenham, who was 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored. Six different Indians scored at least once. Running for Stone, Hunter Knox reached home three times. Stone was 1-for-2 with three walks. Only Zach Rhame failed to score a run for the Indians but he brought in Reyenga in the third inning with a sacrifice fly to center field.
Topic: Playoff Series with Friendswood (Read 1973 times)
