Marak
finishes
Butler baseball coach Dave Florie walked back to the
dugout, believing Joe Marak had enough left in the tank.
He was right.
Florie's visit to the mound came with two outs in the top of the seventh
inning, just after Shaler had received back-to-back RBI singles from Zack
Schramm and Greg Friend to cut
Marak needed one more out for the complete-game victory.
"I asked him how he felt, and he said he was fine," Florie said.
"I knew he wanted to stay in there."
The Titans got the tying run into scoring position when Friend stole second
base. But Marak got a called strike three on Ryan Mincher to cap the latest win
for
It was the last of several jams Marak pitched out of during the game.
"I figured I put the (runners) there and it was up to me to get us out of
it," said Marak, a senior right-hander making his third start of the
season. "I knew I wasn't done when Coach Florie came out in the
seventh."
"If we would have caught the ball, we would have won," said Titans
coach Bob Hinds," referring to several fly balls that were not caught by
his outfielders on a cold and windy day. "That and the
fact that we can't hit with runners in scoring position."
Marak struck out seven, walked three and gave up the two runs on seven hits.
His teammates gave him a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third when Dustin
Uhlman's bloop single to right scored courtesy runner Tyler Weist before the
former scored on John Crummy's double to left.
The cushion was pushed to 3-0 in the fifth when Uhlman walked, moved to third
on Crummy's base hit and scored on Ryan Fennell's sacrifice fly.
Though it ended the game with only seven hits,
"We've been spending a lot of time in batting practice and the kids are
going to the plate with a lot of confidence," said Florie.
Marak's first jam came in the top of the first, when Shaler's John Orr and Matt
Ciensinski began the game with a single and double, respectively.
With runners on second and third, Marak struck out Ryan Fazio and Ed Jacquel
swinging and got Friend to look at a third strike.
In Shaler's half of the fifth, Ben Mulig and Ciensinski singled before Fazio
walked to load the bases with two outs.
But, like he did all game, Marak wiggled his way out of trouble with a
strikeout, getting Jordan Gruszkowski swinging.
"I told the guys after the game that there are going to be a lot of close
games this year and it's going to come down to who has
what in their belly," said Florie. "Joe pitched with his belly
today."
Zach Kreke pitched six innings for Shaler (3-4, 0-2), striking out two and
walking two in the loss.
Shaler 000 000 2 2 7 1
WP: Joe
Marak (7 IP) 7 strikeouts, 3 walks. LP: Zach Kreke (6 IP) 2 strikeouts,
2 walks
Shaler (3-4, 0-2): John Orr 2-1B R, Matt Ciensinski 1B 2B, Ed Jacquel
1B, Greg Friend 1B RBI, Ben Mulig 1B, Zack Schramm 1B R RBI
Butler (7-2, 2-0): Tanner Master 1B, Dustin Uhlman 1B 2R RBI, John
Crummy 1B 2B RBI, Ryan Fennell RBI, Eric King 1B, Dave Schmidt 1B, Tanner McCaw
1B, Tyler Weist R