Baseball: Knights 10-run Kings twice

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By Dearrel Bates | Monday, June 23, 2008 10:30 PM CDT | () comments

Assumption first baseman Ben Bush tosses a ground ball to pitcher Adam Gacke for an out against Clinton on Monday. Buy this Photo

Sometimes, baseball momentum is hard to figure out.

Davenport Assumption came into Monday’s Mississippi Athletic Conference doubleheader still smarting from three losses last week — two in a first-place showdown against Burlington and one to Class 2A’s top-ranked Cascade.

Clinton, on the other hand, was riding on the crest of a 5-game winning streak, including a 13-inning victory over Class 3A’s defending state champions and this summer’s No. 1-ranked team, West Delaware of Manchester.

What happened? Assumption swept the River Kings out of town with shortened 12-2 and 11-1 wins. The first contest went six innings, the nightcap five because of the 10-run rule.

“The guys on the mound threw strikes, we played solid defense and we hit the ball up-and-down our lineup, especially putting the ball in play with two strikes,” said Assumption coach Bill Argo.

Graduated senior Adam Gacke and sophomore John Blough were the winning pitchers for the Knights (10-2 in the MAC, 19-6 overall). The two right-handers had identical two-strikeout, one-walk lines. Combined, they allowed 12 hits.

The only real offensive damage Clinton did in the twin bill was belt a pair of solo home runs, both in the opener against Gacke. Darryl Sexton, the losing pitcher in Game 2, and Austin Krick did the damage.

“It was a pretty good outing for me,” said Gacke, who threw just 64 pitches, 42 for strikes. “Once we got ahead, I tried to stay ahead of the batters. We had some great defense and we scored a lot of runs which made it easy on me.”

Clinton coach Trent Snowden couldn’t explain the turn-around for his club.

“Getting 10-runned in both games is humiliating, especially in how we played,” he said. “We got picked off a couple of times, let them take extra bases, didn’t throw to the cutoff man, threw to the wrong bases, walked too many guys. Even though we had a lot of games last week, we had our pitching set up so we can’t use that as an excuse. Now, we have a couple of days of practice to get ready for Burlington.”

Burlington entered play Monday one game in front of Assumption, with each team having six games remaining.

The Knights — who play Wilton at Modern Woodmen Park today after the Quad-Cities River Bandits afternoon game — banged out 11 hits in each of the games and tallied five runs in the sixth inning to end the opener prematurely.

Mike Furlong, Willie Argo and Jake Kent each had two hits, with Kent knocking in three runs and Jared McIntosh four. Three of McIntosh’s four RBIs came on a bases-loaded double in the fourth off Clinton reliever Jordan Camp, who had replaced starter and loser Matt Weller.

Argo and Furlong had multi-hit games in the second contest, as did Trevor Fennelly. In fact, Clinton didn’t get Argo out all day as he went 5-for-5, with two walks, five runs scored and three RBIs. He also stole a couple of bases.

“I’m feeling more relaxed at the plate now, not jumping at pitches,” Argo said. “I seem to be seeing the ball better, too. We lost some tough games last week, but hopefully we can start to get on a roll now.”

The Knights, in addition to today’s single game against Wilton, play at Fairfield on Wednesday, conference opponent North on the road Thursday, and at the Saydel tournament Friday.

At Saydel, Assumption faces state-ranked West Des Moines Dowling and Class 4A’s No. 1 team, Johnston.

Contact the sports desk at (563) 383-2285 or sports@qctimes.com.