Coughlin at Crestwood

The Crestwood Comets and the Coughlin Crusaders played their Conference opener on Wednesday afternoon. Chase Nowak was the starting pitcher for the Crusaders and Matt Mickowski got the start for the Comets. Matt Mickowski started the 1st with a 1-2-3 inning with a little help from his defense. Chase Nowak drove a ball around the left field line and Tim Kindler dove to make the catch for the third out. The Comets first off promising, RJ Kresge led off with a single and James Graves drew a one-out walk but a fielder's choice to short forced out Graves for the second out. Tim Kindler drew a 2-out walk but a strikeout ended the inning. Matt Mickowski would have another 1-2-3 inning in the 2nd, the first out was a hard hit ball at Mickowski that hit him but was able to recover to get the out at first and the other two were grounders to the shortstop. Curtis Tokach led off the second inning with a single to left, and then Wegener hit a 1-out single to right but a pop up and a strikeout ended the second. Coughlin got a one-out single by Dave Ceklosky in the top of the third but 2 groundouts ended the top half of the inning. Colin Macko drew a 1-out walk but a little misfortune occurred next. Tim Kindler lined a ball to the first basemen Leroy Fettig who caught it and touched first base for an unassisted double play to end the inning. TJ Wozniak led the top of the fourth inning by getting hit by a pitch. Chase Nowak would single for a first and second with no outs. Fettig would ground out into a fielder's choice to force out Nowak, moving Wozniak to third. Steve Dressler would single home Wozniak for a 1-0 Coughlin lead. A double play would end the inning. Nowak had a 1-2-3 inning in the 4th. Dougalas reached on an error but Mickowski would retire the side to keep it 1-0 Coughlin. Derek Distasio got a 1-out single but a ground out ended the inning. James Graves came in relief of Mickowski. Graves would only give up a 2-out single to Leroy Fettig but a pop out ended the top of the 6th. Tim Kindler reached on an error with one out and Mike Paranich entered the game to pinch run. Paranich reached second on an errant pickoff play. Tokach would draw a 2-out walk but a strikeout ended the 6th. Graves would pitch a 1-2-3 7th inning to keep it 1-0 going to the bottom of the 7th. RJ Kresge drew a one out walk but a hard hit ball by Derek Distasio turned into a 5-4-3 double play that ended the game and the Crusaders end up taking the victory 1-0 over the Comets. Chase Nowak went the distance on the mound, getting the shutout, striking out 7 and giving up 4 hits.

Thoughts on the game: Great pitching performance by Chase Nowak on a cold day. He got into jams but seemed to get out of it with no runs. Crestwood had plenty of chances to score but couldn't seem to get the hit at the right time, they ended up leaving 8 men on base. Also Matt Mickowski pitched a great game, only giving up a run in the fourth and James Graves also pitched well in 2 innings, retiring six of seven batters he faced.

Next Up: Coughlin hosts Valley West tomorrow and Crestwood hosts Delaware Valley in an exhibition matchup.

Coughlin    0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1

Crestwood 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Coughlin

CF Christian 3 0 0 0

SS Wozniak 2 1 0 0

P Nowak 3 0 1 0

1B Fettig 3 0 1 0

PR Marek 0 0 0 0

C Dressler 3 0 1 1

LF Cerep 3 0 0 0

RF Dougalas 3 0 0 0

PH Monaghan 1 0 0 0

3B D Ceklosky 3 0 1 0

2B Gartley 2 0 0 0

Crestwood

CF Kresge 3 0 1 0

SS Distasio 4 0 1 0

P Mickowski 0 0 0 0

DH/P Graves 2 0 0 0

1B Macko 2 0 0 0

LF Kindler 2 0 0 0

LF Paranich 0 0 0 0

RF Albee 2 0 0 0

PH Trimmer 1 0 0 0

3B Tokach 2 0 1 0

2B Darden 2 0 0 0

2B Caladie 1 0 0 0

C Wegener 3 0 1 0

Pitching

Coughlin

Nowak W (1-0)

7 IP 0 R 0 ER 4 H 7 Ks 5 BBs

Crestwood

Mickowski L (0-1)

5 IP 1 R 1 ER 3 H 2 Ks 0 BB

Graves

2 IP 0 R 0 ER 1 H 1 K 0 BB