Skins overcome miscues

By STU SWARTZ
Goshen News Sports Editor

May 12, 2009 09:46 am

— Goshen High School’s baseball Redskins battled back to the .500 mark Monday in rather unconventional fashion.
Despite seven errors, the Redskins managed to generate enough offense for a 10-8 Northern Lakes Conference win over the Elkhart Memorial Crimson Chargers at Phend Field.
Goshen senior right-hander Spencer Oversen weathered the shaky defensive support, allowing just one earned run while striking out eight and walking two.
After throwing 123 pitches, Oversen was relieved with one out in the seventh inning by classmate Brandon Farver who got a popup and strikeout to finally end the game.
GHS coach Hal Farmwald said, “There’s no reason to talk about all the errors. A win is a win and I was pleased how we hit the ball.
“Oversen pitched a good ball game and Farver was able to finish it. We just didn’t make defensive plays behind them.”
With few clouds in the sky and a little breeze, it seemed every fly ball or pop fly was an adventure on both sides.
“There was a high sky and a little wind, but there’s no excuse for some of those balls to drop,” said Farmwald. “We will be working on that in practice.”
Goshen continued to get amazing production from the top of its lineup — junior Carl Kay, seniors Brock Bender, Ethan Hussey and Brett Hunter.
Going back to Saturday’s sweep of Westview at Phend, that Redskin quartet is a collective 26-for-43 at the plate with 19 runs batted in. That is a .605 batting average.
Hussey had a sacrifice fly and two-run single against Memorial, Hunter had a single, double and fielder’s choice for an RBI on each, Bender two doubles with an RBI and Kay two singles.
“And they were not getting cheap hits,” said Farmwald. “That’s what we look for from the top of the lineup. They were moving people around and driving them in. We also got some production from the bottom of the order.
“For all the errors, at least we were able to finish this game off and get back to .500. Now, we are on a little roll again.”
The Redskins visit Plymouth on Wednesday and host Wawasee on Friday.
The big inning for Goshen against Memorial was the second with six tallies. Jeremy Jordan, Jon Swihart and Taylor Short all had RBI singles in the inning to go with the “Big Four.”
Junior Varsity
Goshen won the JV game at Rogers Park, 6-3.
Jordan Grise was the winning pitcher with relief help from Diego Garcia. Michael Lewallen had three hits for the Redskins, Brad Taylor two hits and Grise an RBI squeeze bunt.