By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
SILVER LAKE – It was an anti-climatic evening for the Silver Lake baseball team against Mid-East League foe Riley County, but that’s how the Eagles wanted it with their 16-1, 15-0 run-rule victories on Monday night.
Logan Cathcart (9) helped Silver Lake push its winning streak to 10 games with a Mid-East League sweep over Riley County on Monday. [File photo/TSN]
Silver Lake's Dysen Schooler (7) had a big day at the plate in Monday's twinbill sweep over Riley County. [File photo/TSN]
Outside of a pair of opening-day losses to Hayden, Silver Lake has rolled the rest of the way this spring.
The Eagles are riding a 10-game win streak with eight wins against opponents within their league.
In the last two doubleheaders against Wabaunsee and Riley County, Silver Lake has outscored those two schools 61-1. No-hitters, run rules and shutouts have been regular in Eagle Country lately.
“We’ve had two pretty big senior classes leave the last two years, and I knew coming into this year we were going to be young and inexperienced, but we’ve done a really good job of staying the course,” Silver Lake coach Tyler Seele said. “We’re getting a little bit better each and every day. One thing about our guys is when we come to practice; our practices are spirited with a ton of energy.
"Hayden is a tough team, and that was a tough draw to begin the season. But we’ve done a really good job of locking in and doing the little things right. Basic things like base running, throwing strikes on the mound, making routine plays and taking extra bases.”
On Monday night against Riley County, finding anything Silver Lake didn’t do well was difficult.
In both the 16-1 and 15-0 victories, Silver Lake ended the contests in four innings. Along with the early exits, Silver Lake scored at least one run in every inning in the doubleheader.
“I think the main thing with our at-bats right now is that our approaches are really good,” Seele said. “We have a plan when we go to the plate. We aren’t a team that will hit a bunch of balls out of the yard, but we drill to them that we will have quality at-bats every time. No matter what happens, we are going to go up to the plate and compete.”
In the opening 16-1 victory, four Eagle batters had multi-RBI games. Junior Tanner Martin led Silver Lake in runners batted in, going 3-3 with 4RBI. Juniors Corbin Forgy and Brody Renfro each had 2RBI, while sophomore Cooper Campidilli also had a 2RBI game.
Batters such as Dysen Schooler, Elijah Barnes, Jack Seele and Grant Speer also drove in an RBI.
Barnes and Martin split the four innings on the mound in the game one victory.
Barnes struck out four batters while giving up a run and two hits. Martin struck out a pair of batters without allowing any hits or runs. In addition, the tandem walked two combined batters in four innings of work.
Silver Lake sophomore Logan Cathcart was on the bump in the Game 2 win. Last Thursday night, in the win against Wabaunsee, Cathcart tossed a six-inning, seven-strikeout no-hitter. While Cathcart pitched three innings against Riley County, the sophomore didn’t give up any hits in this contest either.
Cathcart allowed no hits or runs in three innings of work while walking a batter and striking out three batters.
Senior Brett Hinck came in to relieve Cathcart in the fourth inning, where he would strike out three straight batters without walking a Falcon or giving up any hits, which gave Silver Lake a combined four-inning no-hitter in game two.
“Our pitching is something that we’ve leaned on for the majority of the year,” Seele said. “We had a tough outing against Hayden where we walked some people, but after that, we’ve done a really good job of getting on top of hitters. We just compete on the mound. We don’t worry about what happened the pitch before, and we get right back in the zone. Our whole goal is to get after it and not let the other team beat us.”
The bats didn’t disappoint either, along with the no-hitter in the 15-0 Game 2 victory for Silver Lake. Even though Riley County had its miscues defensively with six errors, the Eagles earned eight hits, including three extra-base hits as well as drawing five walks.
Junior Jack Seele led the team in runs driven in with three off of his 2-2 night. Renfro and Schooler each had two RBI including a walk-off triple from Renfro.
Cathcart, Barnes, Campidilli and Martin added an RBI of their own in the nightcap.
Silver Lake has had some challenging opponents on their schedule thus far, but are well aware they can’t let their current successes get into their heads with tough schools left to face in their schedule.
“I was just talking to our guys in the dugout after the game about it; the backend of our schedule is tough,” Seele said. “We got Concordia and Wamego coming up Thursday, and we have Kansas City Christian, as well as Rock Creek and Jeff West, still on the schedule. We have a lot of really tough opponents coming up that will be a challenge for us.
"We have to keep doing what we’re doing. We need to keep getting a little bit better. We still have things to clean up. We’re nowhere near a finished product yet, but I do think that if we keep getting better at practice, we will be alright.”
GAME ONE
SILVER LAKE 16, RILEY COUNTY 1
Riley County 010 0 – 1 3 3
Silver Lake 428 2 – 16 11 1
W -- Barnes. L -- McCallister. 2B – Silver Lake: Barnes, Campidilli, Seele.
GAME TWO
SILVER LAKE 15, RILEY COUNTY 0
Riley County (1-11) 000 0 – 0 0 6
Silver Lake (10-2) 631 5 – 15 8 0
W -- Cathcart. L -- Allen. 2B – Silver Lake: Barnes, Seele. 3B – Silver Lake: Renfro.
