Apparently my plea to “give Buckingham a little mercy” was taken to heart, as the Cavs beat them 13-3, invoking the mercy rule after only five innings.
The Cavs’ win against our school’s perennial rivals can be attributed to solid fielding. While it wasn’t quite last game’s 100-percent fielding average, the boys still let only a few balls through.
“Our defense was sharp,” freshman Miles Edwards said.
Edwards said the defensive star of the game was senior Ethan Ham, who pitched four of the game’s five innings.
Throughout those innings, Ham allowed only three runs. Although Ham did strike out two batters, his real usefulness to the team was in his consistency.
“He just threw strikes and allowed the fielders to make the plays that made him so successful,” Edwards said.
Senior George Cvetich agreed.
“He was hit on a lot, but they just ended up going to our outfielders and infielders,” Cvetich said. “It made the game fast and easy.”
As the 13-3 score shows, fielding wasn’t the only strength. Boy, did those guys get some runs in. They got six in the fourth inning – a number that is impressive enough without considering that it doubled Buckingham’s game score.
“By that point we only needed a couple more runs to win,” Cvetich said. “The game was pretty much over.”
While the extremes in batting were scattered throughout the team (Edwards led in number of doubles at two; sophomore Emil Erickson led in RBI’s at three; and Cvetich and sophomore David Boley tied for most runs at three each), Cvetich feels like the batter who had the best game was Boley.
“David had a pretty good game today,” Cvetich said. “He hasn’t been hitting all that well this season, but stepped up.”
As I said before, Boley was tied with Cvetich for the most runs at three. Not only that, but he had a 1.000 batting average in three at-bats and his second double of the season.
But what of the rivalry? You know, the rivalry? The one that prompts boos and jeers during soccer games and makes the players a bit more physical than the parents of either side want them to be (or maybe I’m being too presumptuous).
As it turns out, there really isn’t much rivalry between the two when it comes to America’s pastime.
“I really didn’t feel like I needed to beat them as much as I do in soccer,” senior Skovran Cunningham said. “I mean, I hate Buckingham and I want to beat them, but it’s definitely not as intense.
“No trash talking or anything.”
Jeez. Aside from that rivalry stuff, this article could be a copy-and-paste of the story from last game. Solid fielding, great batting? It’s all there.
Could it be a trend? Let’s hope so. Oh, be still my beating heart.
