Published: May 06, 2008 07:09 am         

Redskins baseball team keeps winning streak alive

It wasn’t easy, but the Goshen Redskins won their fifth straight Northern Lakes Conference high school baseball game Monday at Elkhart Memorial.

The Redskins were leading 7-1 going into the bottom of the seventh inning before holding on for a 7-5 victory.

“I don’t know why we can’t have a 1-2-3 seventh inning,” Goshen coach Hal Farmwald said.

Redskin pitcher junior Spencer Oversen limited the Memorial offense to one run and four hits over the first six innings.

“Spencer entered the seventh with a good pitch count,” Farmwald said. “Memorial is a good hitting team and he battled through some tough at-bats.”

One Memorial batter had a 13-pitch at-bat.

Senior left-hander Jacob Drudge relieved Oversen with no outs and the bases loaded.

Sophomore Zach Corpe was the first batter Drudge faced. He doubled in a run, but a baserunning mistake accounted for Memorial’s first out. Drudge then retired senior Tyler Parsons on a fly out to right and senior Shane Davis on a liner to second.

“Drudge came in in a real tough situation,” Farmwald said. “This is a big NLC win for us.”

Goshen (7-7, 5-3 NLC) visits Warsaw today and Memorial (14-5, 6-3) hosts Concord Wednesday.

Junior Robert FitzSimmons started the Memorial seventh with a home run.

“That homer lifted out spirits, but we need baserunners,” Memorial coach Scott Rost said. It was FitzSimmons’ fourth homer of the season.

Memorial got them as the next five Crimson Chargers reached safely. Sophomore John Brewers walked, senior Gavin Strausborger singled and senior Matt McCullough singled to load the bases. Senior Joe Brewers singled home John Brewers and Strausborger before Corpe’s double plated McCullough.

“We are a good team, but need to be more consistent,” Rost said. “We swing at too many bad pitched and popped up too many times.

“Oversen changes speeds, but we did not take advantage of some fast balls over the plate. We did not make good swings at those pitches. Part of the credit goes to Oversen for that.”

Senior Josh Ortiz had a good game at the plate for the Redskins. He belted a two-run homer over the left field fence in the third and ripped a run-scoring triple to right in the fifth.

“Josh did not play Saturday (at Westview) and our game got rained out on Friday so he had not swung a bat since last Thursday,” Farmwald said. “That was his second homer of the season. He hit a long one at Plymouth, but this one was even longer. He got all of this one.”

Senior Jordan Short added a double, single and three runs scored for the Redskins; junior Brett Hunter a run-scoring double and Oversen an RBI single.

“We got contributions up and down the lineup,” Farmwald said. “We are hitting the ball to all fields and that is making a big difference.”