by Brent Hovey

Reporter

Aurora -- The Greenmen baseball team is starting to play the way coach George Snider thought it would this year.

Snider expected an explosive, run-scoring offense which he hoped would carry the team until a pitching rotation was established and the defense kicked in.

All those -- especially the explosive offense -- were on display last week when the Greenmen won all four games they played.

On April 20, a game against Chagrin Valley Conference Chagrin Division rival Kenston at Progressive Field was rained out.

That didn't seem to bother the team as it gained wins over Kenston 11-1, Cardinal Mooney 5-3 and Cleveland Heights 7-6 and 11-3.

"We're winning games the way we thought we would," said Snider. "We're hitting through our lineup, the defense is getting better and we've established our rotation.

"I don't think the guys even though about winning four in a row. They're just playing and doing what they do."

Coming into the contests against Aurora, Kenston (12-1), Mooney (14-1) and Cleveland Heights (11-1) had a combined record of 37-3. Mooney's only other loss was to AHS on April 1.

"We're winning games we need to win," Snider said in reference to seeding come sectional tournament time. "We're beating good teams and playing a tough weekend schedule. To sweep Mooney and Cleveland Heights was very important."

During the four-game win streak, the offense averaged 8.5 runs a game while the pitching yielded 3.25.

"WE'VE established our one-two guys and our closer," Snider said. "And the little guys are picking us up on weekends and giving us good innings like Peter Doyle and Wes Domeck did [Saturday]."

The offense has homered in every game during the streak. Ian Sanford hit his first of the year, a 2-run shot against Kenston, Rob Lajeunesse hit one in each of the last three games and Ty Watson hit his first against Mooney.

Watson and Lajeunesse have been on fire at the plate. For the week, Watson was 6 for 12 with 6 RBI, 4 runs scored and 2 stolen bases.

Lajeunesse was even better at 5 for 12 with 3 home runs, 6 RBI, 6 runs scored and 2 doubles.

Snider jokingly called them his Mantle-Maris combination from the 1960s Yankees.

Against Kenston, Aurora exploded for 8 runs in the third inning. Besides Watson's 4-RBI day and Sanford's 2-run HR, Andy Mitroff had a 2-run single and Joe Taylor had a pair of RBI singles.

Taylor's most impressive work was on the mound. He pitched a 3-hit complete game, giving up one run and striking out 7 to move to 3-1.

"Taylor's pitching really well," Snider said. "He's working in a third pitch -- a knuckle curve -- and throwing it more regularly. Coach [John] Calcei calls a great game and all Joe has to do is throw; he doesn't have to think."

Against Mooney, Watson picked up his second win (2-0), while Lajeunesse did most of the damage offensively. He was 2 for 3 with a homer, double and 3 RBI.

Heights doubleheader

In the first game, AHS had to hold off a late rally. It jumped out to a 7-3 lead behind an offense that wasn't so much explosive as it was productive.

The Greenmen scored in the first after Steven Yung walked, stole second and third, and scored on Taylor's groundout.

In the second, AHS added 4 more. Mitroff had an RBI single and Andy Heacox and Sanford had RBIs on sacrifice flies. The other run came when T.J. Deininger stole home.

Andrew Wallace got the start and lasted 2.1 innings. Doyle came on to pitch 3.1 innings before giving way to Sanford. Doyle didn't allow any runs until the fifth and earned the win. Sanford got the save.

Aurora's other runs came on Mitroff's RBI double in the third and Lajeunesse's homer in the fifth.

In the second game, the Greenmen scored in every inning but the second. Lajeunesse hit his third homer in as many games and added another RBI on a sacrifice bunt.

What makes Lajeunesse's homer streak even more impressive is he is doing it with a bad back.

He couldn't play first base in the second game of the doubleheader and told Snider in the first game that if he got on, he'd need a pinch runner because he could barely walk.

Other big offensive games came from Taylor (3 hits, 3 RBI, 2 runs scored), Yung (4 hits, 2 runs scored), Watson (3 RBI), Deininger (2 RBI), Nick Phillips, and Sanford had the final RBI.

Domeck pitched five good innings, giving up 2 runs. Pitching the last two innings was John Kovalik, who made his varsity debut. He gave up one run on three hits and struck out the final three batters.

Overall, Aurora was 10-7 overall heading into this week and 2-1 in the CVC.

"At the beginning of the year, if you'd have told me we'd be three games over .500, I'd take it," Snider said. "We're playing well. We've had injuries, but we've found depth because of them."

The Greenmen play three games this week (weather permitting). CVC games against Perry were scheduled April 28 and 29. A non-league contest May 2 against Ravenna is scheduled.

The CVC schedule in-cludes games May 5 and 6 against West Geauga.

E-mail:

bhovey@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3115