July 20, 2018 at 4:58 p.m.
Snowhawks display heavy hitting in second straight win
Snowhawks display heavy hitting in second straight win
The Snowhawks struggled to put the big run totals on the board that fans have become accustomed to over the years, but Monday they broke out in a big way.
Lake Tomahawk pounded out 27 hits - every batter earned a hit - in an 18-3 rout of Heart II in front of a huge mid-July crowd.
"We got the bats running tonight - finally," Lake Tomahawk manager Jeff Smith said. "Just about everybody on the team got a hit. It was a good performance, hitting-wise. We took advantage of some errors that they had that we usually don't see. A couple dropped balls here and there kind of extended the innings a little bit."
Ryan Schowalter scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the opening inning on a hit by Derek Young, but things truly began to pick up in the second.
Lake Tomahawk earned six hits in the frame, scoring four runs as Dustin Schowalter, Justin Crass, Nick Merckx and Billy Kuckkahn all came around to score.
The Snowhawks followed that up in the third with a five-run inning as Brent Cella, Todd Niemuth, Crass and Merckx scored. The frame was capped by an inning-ending home run by Kuckkahn to extend the lead to 9-0.
Brady Bruhl finally scored in the fourth inning to get Heart II on the board, but Lake Tomahawk continued the onslaught with two more runs in the bottom of the inning and another five-run frame in the fifth as the lead eventually ballooned to 18-1.
"I think we built up enough of a lead and then just kinda cruised," Smith said. "Nobody likes to rub it in. You know how that goes. You try not to get too many."
The Snowhawks were tough in the field as well, holding a talented hitting team to just three runs.
Bruhl scored two of the runs and John Ottoson scored another, but Heart II couldn't seem to string together any momentum during the game.
"They are a good hitting team," Smith said. "It's a culmination of some guys from different leagues. They all got on Heart II's team. They were a little short on the stick for hits and we took advantage of that."
Young and Crass each went 4 for 5 at the plate for Lake Tomahawk, while Kuckkahn was 3 for 4 with three runs. Merckx also tallied three runs.
The Snowhawks have been slowly building momentum and it is beginning to show in the last two weeks as they round into mid-season form offensively.
"We're starting to get a little mojo going here," Smith said. "We're getting a few hits, getting confidence and hitting is kind of contagious. When the bottom of the lineup is starting to get hits, it just makes it that much better for the top with scoring guys."
Bruhl and Joey Marshal each went 3 for 4 in defeat for Heart II.
Lake Tomahawk (2-3) faces the Coaching All-Stars on Monday at 7:30 p.m.
Nick Sabato may be reached at [email protected] or via Twitter @NickSabatoLT.
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