Hub bats come alive at Streator

Rochelle takes both games of Saturday doubleheader

Russell Hodges
Posted 4/9/17

Hubs varsity baseball coach Jarrod Reynolds has been looking for his team to score more runs after plating just nine over the team’s first four games of the season.

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Hub bats come alive at Streator

Rochelle takes both games of Saturday doubleheader

Posted

STREATOR — Hubs varsity baseball coach Jarrod Reynolds has been looking for his team to score more runs after plating just nine over the team’s first four games of the season.

It’s safe to say the boys answered that call when they faced the Streator Bulldogs on the road this past Saturday for a two-game set.

Beginning the day with an 8-4 victory, Rochelle took the second half of the doubleheader by a score of 6-5 to extend its winning streak to three games and improve to 3-2-1 on the season. With his lineup returning to its normal form, Reynolds said he was pleased with how his team looked at the plate on Saturday.

“Any time you can walk away with two wins it’s always nice and I think the kids were excited,” he said. “We took advantage of Streator’s mistakes and we put the ball in play a bit more and struck out less. I think we’re starting to hit the ball better… We did a lot of good things offensively.”

Caleb Gould made the first start of his senior season in the first game of the doubleheader, firing five innings while striking out nine batters. Gould also went 2-for-5 at the plate with a single and a double, but Reynolds said he was more impressed with the right-hander’s repertoire on the mound.

“He was phenomenal,” Reynolds said. “He threw a lot of strikes and he had a lot of close pitches he didn’t get the call on… His fastball was good and his curveball was sharp. Overall it was just a great performance by him.”

The Hubs and Bulldogs were locked in a 4-4 tie through six innings before Rochelle broke out for four runs in the top of the seventh to take control of the opening game. Sophomore Cody Johnson’s two-run double helped spark the rally, while a couple of clutch at-bats including an RBI bunt single by junior Riley Lodico also ignited the RTHS run.

“It was really nice to see the kids fight back,” Reynolds said. “We had a bunch of big hits in a row… Riley really caught them off guard and Cody followed up with a big double. It was an exciting inning to see and it was good for the kids to get some runs late in a game.”

Sophomore Johnny Beck pitched the final two innings of the first game to earn the win for Rochelle, while junior Ralphy Mancinas took the ball to start the second game. Mancinas pitched the first two innings before Johnson entered in relief, throwing three and two-thirds innings while not allowing a single run.

Senior Kyle Seebach closed the game and earned the save for RTHS, firing one and one-third scoreless innings. Johnson picked up the victory, his first of the season, for the varsity squad. With the Ottawa Pirates up next, Reynolds is looking forward to entering the conference schedule with some positive momentum.

“We have all of our guys back now and we have a lot of seniors,” he said. “I think it’s just a matter of our seniors stepping up which is pretty exciting. They’ve put in the work over the last four years and now it’s their turn to shine. This is a group that people have expected a lot from over the past few years.”