"Not only did we have some physical errors, but we had some mental errors," Post 23 coach Jack Branon said. "Those are inexcusable. Even a couple of physical errors are inexcusable because we had the ball in our gloves and we dropped it."
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To see a photo gallery from the game, CLICK HERE.
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Errors plagued Post 23 as the Ohio Warhawks capitalized on the mistakes and came away with an 8-3 win in the first game of the 2011 Gene Bennett Classic.
Post 23 committed errors in the first, fifth and sixth innings. Although the Warhawks did not score runs off the errors, they did score on passed balls and wild pitches against Post 23 starter Derek Moore.
"You just can't do that, you can't let a runner score from second base on a passed ball," Branon said. "You can't make the mistakes that we made and give them extra outs."
The Ohio Warhawks drew first blood when third baseman Tucker Tubbs took a 1-1 offering from Moore over the wall in left field. In the next frame, the lead was increased to 5-0 thanks to three straight hits.
"Typically, what happens is we have one bad inning that puts us in a situation and that's what happened today," Branon said. "They get four runs there in the third and honestly, we didn't very play well defensively."
Moore was touched up for eight runs (all earned) on seven hits in six innings. In 116 pitches, Moore walked four and struck out three.
"I was very pleased with Derek," Branon said. "Again, I thought we made some mistakes behind him. Once he got used to the mound — he'd never pitched off the mound here before — and started locating his pitches, I thought he threw some outstanding pitches."
Post 23 scored its lone run in the bottom of the third. Austin Boyer's sacrifice fly scored Austin Hall from third.
"Obviously, the game is closer if we get somebody on base, we can bunt or we could steal," Branon said. "When you get behind 8-1, you just have to kinda sit around and wait for a seven-run homer and there aren't too many of those around."
Tate Skinner led Post 23 at the plate with a 2-for-3 performance in the seventh spot of the batting order.
"Tate's been hitting the ball pretty well for us and like we've talked about before, just because somebody's batting down in the order doesn't mean they can't hit," Branon said. "All of these guys can hit, you can't squeeze everybody into the three, four and five holes."
Iannick Remmilard went the distance for the Warhawks, allowing one run on five hits while he struck out eight, walked one and hit two batters on 88 pitches.
CODY LEIST can be reached at cleist@heartlandpublications.com or by phone at (740) 353-3101 ext. 242.
Ohio Warhawks 0 1 4 1 0 2 0 — 8 8 0
Post 23 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 — 1 5 3
Ohio Warhawks — Bell 1-3 (BB, 2 RBI, R), Kelly 1-2 (BB, R), Jones 1-3 (2B, BB, 2 RBI, R), Gretz 1-3 (RBI), Tubbs 1-4 (HR, RBI, R), K. White 0-3 (BB, SB), Escobedo 2-4 (R), C. White 1-4 (3B, 2 R), Carter 0-2 (BB, R).
Post 23 — Loop 0-4 (BB), Boyer 0-2 (RBI), Parsley 1-3, Burchett 1-3, Bailey 2-3, Hall 0-2 (HBP, R), Hood 1-2 (HBP).
WP — Remmilard (2-0)
LP — Moore (0-1)
Records — Ohio Warhawks 4-0; Post 23 13-4.







