Experience abounds on the East Grand Forks Sacred Heart pitching staff.
Some of it was good experience; some of it was bad. But all the experience seems to be paying off for the Eagles' baseball team. Sacred Heart improved to 4-0 on Saturday, winning twice on quality pitching performances at the annual Sacred Heart Classic high school tournament.
With wins of 10-0 over Kittson County Central and 10-2 over Drayton/St. Thomas/Valley-Edinburg, Sacred Heart was the lone unbeaten in the four-team round-robin tournament. Kittson County Central and Drayton/St. Thomas/Valley-Edinburg both were 1-1, while Larimore went 0-2 in the tournament.
Sacred Heart pitchers allowed only two runs and five hits in the two wins. Michael Pietruszewski and Zak Kuznia each picked up his first win of the season.
"Our pitching staff is essentially our staff from last year and two years ago,'' Eagles coach Craig Pietruszewski said. "They took their lumps two years ago. We won 3-4 games and we got pounded in a lot of games. And they've learned from their trials and tribulations.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I expected our pitchers to do well. I don't know that I expected the good pitching that we've received so far.''
Corey Roach got the pound wins in the season's first two games, teaming with Michael Pietruszewski for a no-hitter in the season opener. Pietruszewski threw four innings against Drayton/St. Thomas/Valley-Edinburg, allowing one run on three hits while striking out five. Zach Huot threw the final two innings.
Kuznia was even better against Kittson County Central. Drew Olsonawski lined a one-out single to center field in the second inning for the lone hit Kuznia gave up in the complete-game win. He struck out three and had the Bearcats pounding the ball into the ground -- nine outs came on grounders and Eagles outfielders had only one putout.
Kittson County Central "has a great group of athletes,'' Craig Pietruszewski said. "Roach is our only overpowering type of pitcher. The rest of our pitchers have to work the corners and keep hitters off balance. Zak did a nice job of that. And we played good defense.''
In both games, Sacred Heart relied on big innings.
The Eagles scored nine runs in the fourth inning against Drayton/St. Thomas/Valley-Edinburg. Fourteen batters went to the plate, with Roach and Joe Kvidt each driving in a pair of runs with hits in the inning.
Against Kittson County Central, the Eagles broke a scoreless tie with five runs in the fourth. Kuznia got the offense going, as he drove in the first two runs with a triple to right-center and scored on an error. Sacred Heart scored five more in the fifth.
That was more than enough offense for the stingy Sacred Heart pitching staff.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I expected our pitching to be strong,'' Craig Pietruszewski said. "They've done better than I thought they would up to this point. With our tough schedule ahead, we'll need them to continue to compete.''
DeVillers reports on sports. Reach him at (701) 780-1128; (800) 477-6572, ext. 128; or send e-mail to gdevillers@gfherald.com .
