Hood breaks out of funk; Maroons secure Big Six title
Seth Hood has been waiting for a good swing for a while now.
His Moline baseball teammates have been waiting for one from him, too, at least until Saturday afternoon at Holmgren Field.
Hood had scuffled a bit at the plate, particularly in Western Big Six baseball doubleheaders, but his third-inning, three-run home run gave the Maroons momentum they would not relinquish. Moline overcame a four-run first inning from visiting Galesburg in the first game, going on for an 8-5 victory that assured at least a share of the Big Six title.
Less than two hours later, the Maroons won that title outright with a 6-2 second-game victory over the Silver Streaks, finishing the Big Six season with a 9-1 record (18-5 overall). Galesburg fell to 4-6 in league play, 10-13 overall.
“It’s just great, (winning conference) two years in a row. Now we’re going to try to go further (during the upcoming tournament series) than one and out, like we did last year,” Hood said.
The home run, which turned a 4-3 deficit into a 6-4 Moline lead, was a good piece of hitting for Hood, who took an outside pitch from Galesburg starter Caleb Weaver and took it to right field. A strong westerly breeze then helped push the ball over the right-field wall. It might have been the difference between a game-changing home run and a loud out.
“I think the wind helped. A lot,” said Hood, somewhat ruefully. “I didn’t think I got all of it, but the wind helped.”
The home run plated Maroon table-setters Thomas Lindauer (four runs scored, three walks in the doubleheader) and Grant Jasper (four hits, three runs scored) ahead of Hood and seemed to re-energize the squad.
“He’d be the first to tell you he hasn’t driven them in enough,” Moline coach Derek Lindauer said of Hood and his teammates in front of him in the batting order.
“He (Hood) probably hasn’t been real happy with how he’s swinging the bat, but it (the home run) is something we need from him a little more often.”
Lindauer was concerned for his team’s sluggish start.
“It’s happened before, and that’s been one of my concerns. I don’t know. Perhaps we’re not emotionally ready until the fourth and fifth innings,” he said. “I don’t think we played great baseball, but we did enough to win.”
Moline played more consistent ball in the second game, scoring in each of the first five innings. Thomas Lindauer reached base three times, scoring twice, and Jasper had three hits with a run scored and an RBI.
“(It’s) just putting a lot of pressure on the defense, forcing them to hit cuts, to make plays,” Thomas Lindauer said of his role on the team. “If we do that (get on base), we’ve usually got a good chance of scoring.”
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