Published: April 25, 2008 11:06 pm         

Short, Hussey rip homers

On a night when Wrigley Field-type winds were blowing out, the Goshen Redskins found plenty of ways to generate offense.

Senior Jordan Short homered and drove in five runs and junior Ethan Hussey blasted a three-run homer as Goshen defeated the Wawasee Warriors, 12-2, in a Northern Lakes Conference high school boys baseball game Friday at Syracuse.

Both homers were over the left field fence.

“It felt a little bit like Wrigley,” Goshen coach Hal Farmwald said. “Early on the wind hurt us. We had been doing a good job of staying on the ball and taking it the other way. In the middle innings, when we had chances to get the ball up in the air, we drove it.”

Short had a run-scoring single in the third, a two-run homer in the fifth and a two-run triple in the six.

“Jordan had a big game,” Farmwald said. It was Short’s first round-tripper of the season.

Hussey also had three hits. He singled in the fourth and doubled in the fifth before launching his first homer of the season in the sixth.

“It was nice to see Hussey hit one out,” Farmwald said. “He has hit three or four balls this season that, if the wind had not been blowing in. would have been out.”

Goshen (5-5, 3-3 NLC) visits NorthWood and Wawasee (4-6, 2-4) is at Concord, both on Monday.

“We have been a Jekyll-and-Hyde type team,” Wawasee coach Jeff Phillips said. “The NLC games we have won have been close ones. The ones we have lost we have been 10-runned.

“It was one of those days, but when you give up 12 runs most of the time you are going to lose the game.”

The Redskins scored single runs in the first and third before junior Brock Bender doubled in two in the fourth giving Goshen a 4-0 lead.

Short’s blast came in the fifth and the Redskins scored six runs in the sixth.

“Goshen’s home runs came when they we already in the lead,” Phillips said. “Before that they did a good job of taking the ball the other way.”

Bender also singled and scored in both the first and third.

“Bender has had a tremendous week,” Farmwald said. “All week he has been hitting the ball with authority. He has had solid at-bats.”

Nearly lost in all the offensive fireworks by the Redskins was a great pitching performance from junior Spencer Oversen. He allowed six hits while striking out five and walking none.

He lost his bid for a shutout when Wawasee scored twice in the bottom of the sixth. Junior Mike Milligan reached on an error and senior Dan Dingeldein belted a homer over the left field fence.

It was his third of the season.

“Oversen had a great effort,” Farmwald said. “He had a 12-pitch at-bat. He just kept throwing strikes. It’s too bad we lost the shutout.”

Phillips said, “We had too many guys trying to pull the ball over the left field fence and hit the house. Dingeldein is the one guy we have that can pull the ball over the fence anytime.

“Oversen throws strikes and he does not allow cheap runs. He doesn’t walk people so you can’t manufacture runs. You have to earn everything against him. When you have a pitcher like him and you play good defense you are going to win a lot of games.”