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Perfecting your game: Gammon's big night on bump paces Lovejoy sweep
BY Matt Welch, mwelch@starlocalnews.com
If there was a best-case scenario for how to open the postseason, look no further than Lovejoy baseball's entry into the 2012 playoffs.
A run-rule win after five innings? Check.
One of the team's most productive games at the plate all season? Check.
The end result: an 18-0 victory over Carrollton Ranchview that set the table for an eventual Leopards' sweep in the best-of-3 series.
"Everything was clicking for us," said Brooke Court, Lovejoy head coach. "The offense was great, obviously [senior Joey Gammon] was dominant on the mound and our defense made the plays behind him."
Ranchview lasted all of five innings in last Thursday's series opener, with all 15 batters coming away empty-handed opposite the Leopards' defense and Gammon. The Lovejoy hurler didn't allow so much as a base-runner, requiring just 56 pitches while striking out 9-of-15 batters faced.
"[Gammon] looked great," Court said. "He had great velocity on his fastball and was able to locate it in and out on the hitters. He also threw his off-speed pitches for strikes; everything was working for him."
Gammon's night worked in seamless unison with an offense that recorded 18 runs on 12 hits. Nine of those runs came in the first inning, setting the stage for a game that saw seven Leopards record hits, nine Leopards score runs and eight Leopards post RBIs.
Junior Mark Turner scored three runs while going 2-of-3 from the plate. Other multi-hit performances were chipped in by juniors Mason Chase, Tanner DeVinny, Taylor Neitsch and Gammon.
Junior Austin Turnbow added three runs, a total also posted by Chase and junior Kyle Berger.
"I told the kids that I was very proud of them," Court said. "They had every opportunity to dip and drive, and try to hit the ball out of the park. I think only one ball was hit down the left-field line for a double; the majority of them were up the middle or in the gaps."
The Wolves fell victim to Lovejoy's most balanced showing of the season and, despite a valiant attempt to even the series the following night, were done in by four unanswered Leopards runs in Friday's 4-3 victory.
"They had their pitcher, (John) Eagleton, at 84 (miles per hour) on the gun," Court said. "He threw a slider and a two-seam fastball, which had us flat for the first few innings.
"Then we decided to start playing and began producing runs."
Trailing after four innings, 3-0, Lovejoy drew even with a three-run fifth and nudged ahead in the sixth stanza after a Berger RBI single scored sophomore Bryce Lusby.
One inning prior, the Leopards knotted the count at 3-3 with two outs in the inning after Berger scored on an RBI double from Chase, followed by a two-run single from Gammon.
Junior Logan Michaels earned the win on the bump, pitching seven innings during which he surrendered three runs on six hits while fanning seven.
The series win advanced the Leopards past the opening round of the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year, setting up an area-round tilt with Argyle, which is ranked No. 10 in the state by the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association. The Eagles and Leopards are no strangers to each other in the playoffs, with Argyle having ended Lovejoy's season the past two years. The two teams will square off from Al Alford Field in McKinney in a best-of-3 series.
Game 1 is Friday at 7:30 p.m. with Game 2 holding forth Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and Game 3, if necessary, to follow.
"We're excited about competing against Argyle," Court said. "They've been good over the years, but we feel good. We've had some good practices so we're just going to give this our best shot and lay it on the line."
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