Lowell happy with Miller as new pitcher, but drop 5-0 shutout to Class 3A, No.8 Griffith, 5-0

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

4-26-2005

Monday, 4-25-2005  -  sunny, 65 degrees in Lowell

WP – Matt Kuna (2-0) CG, 8Ks, 1 walk, 91 pitches

LP - Clayton Miller (1-2) 8K, 5 walks (6 inning) 98 pitches

GRIFFITH (9-3, 4-2 LAC)

Jim Swienconek (1B) 2 singles, RBI

Joe Wagman (LF) 2 walks, run scored

Matt Kuna (P) Single, 2 RBIs

Danny Lewis (DH) Single, run scored

LOWELL (5-7-1, 3-3 LAC)

Mike Beier (CF) Double
Clayton Miller (P) Double

Mike Malino (C) Single, walk

Friday, 4-22-2005  -  cloudy, 45 degrees in Lowell

WP – Ryan King (1-1) CG, 9Ks, 1 walk

LP - Robert Jenkins (0-2) 2K, 7 walks (2 innings)

GARY WEST SIDE (3-6)

Robert Jenkins (P) Double, run scored

LOWELL (5-7-1, 3-3 LAC)

Ryan King (P) Double, RBI

Dean Basso (OF) Double, RBI

Mike Malino (C) Double, 2 RBI

LOWELL (4-25-2005) - Sometimes both teams are unhappy with the outcome of the same game.

Once in awhile, neither side is.

Griffith, which has the odd record of nine wins against three 10-run losses, was pleased to shut somebody out and win a relatively low-scoring game.

Lowell (5-7-1) missed a chance to return to the .500 mark for the first time since opening day. But they clearly have found a new pitcher in senior Clayton Miller and the Red Devils, even in defeat, do not act like the same team that went 0-4-1 in the first two weeks of the season.

“We didn't hit the ball tonight,” said first-year Devils coach Tom Stoner. “But I'm okay with being 3-3 in the conference at this point. Our three losses have been to Kankakee Valley, Andrean and Griffith. There's a reason Griffith is in the top-10. A lot of teams lose to KV, Andrean and Griffith.”

Lowell's Clayton Miller, making his second career start, deserved a better fate even though he walked leadoff man Joe Wagman to start the game and then fumbled Brian Bell's sacrifice bunt for an error.

Miller walked Griffith's Ryan Bridges to fill the bases but Devil shortstop Kyle Metz made a nice grab and force play on Jim Swienconek's RBI-ground ball up the middle.

Miller, who mixes an average fastball with a big breaking slow curve, struck out Trent Bierman for the second out. But with the count 2-2 on pitcher Matt Kuna, the Panther sophomore reached across the plate and slapped a soft two-run single into right field for a 3-0 Griffith lead.

“It should have been 1-0,” said Stoner. “He made a real nice pitch. The ball just put it in play and that's what you have to do.”

“It takes Clayton a while to get started. He threw 28 pitches in the first inning. Clayton always looks great throwing to a catcher. But when a hitter first gets in there, he's a little flustered. I don't know why. But I thought this was a very good start for him. Clayton pitched our South Newton game and he won it. But before that, he hadn't ever pitched on the varsity. He pitched one JV game last year against Hebron. We're working with him and he did a real nice job tonight.

I pulled him after six innings because he was at 100 pitches and we wanted to save his arm a little bit. I think he had a successful night.”

The game was out of reach after six innings because Griffith got a very strong pitching performance from Kuna, a 16-year-old second year varsity right-hander.

“This was our best all around game of the year,” said Griffith coach Brian Jennings, who was very uncomfortable with three 10-run losses to Kankakee Valley, Crown Point and Andrean. “We played pretty good defense for the most part. Matt did a very good job. Just 91 pitches in seven innings. This was his best game of the year. He hadn't really pitched a lot of innings.'

“If there was one thing I didn't like it was that we didn't score more runs. We missed a squeeze bunt. We didn't score runs from third base twice. We didn't get the hits when we really needed them after the first inning. I thought we could have scored 10 runs easy.”

Griffith left six runners on base in the first five innings, but Lowell mounted only one true rally.

After Kyle Metz struck out to start the fourth inning. Mike Malino sliced a hit into right field. Jon Stoner slapped a bouncing ball to the left of the pitcher that Kuna got a glove on, but fumbled for an error. On a 1-1 pitch, left-handed hitting Matt Kuzma connected on a hard line drive to center field. The ball carried out to Griffith center fielder Drew Rogowski, however, and Malino, who took off with the crack of the bat, was easily doubled off third base.

The final score was just 5-0 against a state top-10 team (Griffith is ranked No. 8 in the latest Class 3A coaches poll.) But to say that Lowell was happy with this game is probably a bit of an overstatement.

“We can't make mistakes like that,” Stoner said of the double play and a couple of other miscues. “We only got four hits,” said senior Mike Beier. “Four hits just isn't very good.”

But Lowell got beat 18-0 by Andrean, 11-1 by KV and 10-3 by Wheeler. The Red Devils are headed in the right direction.

“We're still making mistakes we shouldn't be making at this point,” said Stoner, who watched his team lose to a top-10 team for the fourth time. “It's time to start making corrections. We can win. They (Griffith) only had five or six hits today. They just took advantage of what they had.

“But we've beaten Highland, Hobart and Bishop Noll. Those are three good wins.”

DEVIL NOTES: Griffith coach Brian Jennings said that sophomore Matt Kuna is a good pitcher who will be even better once they can teach him one basic pitch.

“He's never really had a breaking ball,” said Jennings. “He's always been a fastball-change up pitcher. We're working with him on a breaking ball and once he learns it, we think he can be really good.

“He doesn't have a big out pitch. When he gets two strikes, he doesn't have that hammer that he can strike you out with like a (LC all-area pitcher) Brett Summers does.”

Lowell is still talking about the 13-12 come-from-behind win over Bishop Noll on April 18, a game where Lowell hit three solo home runs in the eighth inning to win.

“That was a team win,” said manager Tom Stoner. “The guys who weren't playing were standing at the top of the dugout cheering their teammates on.”

“We come up the bottom of the eight and Smith leads off with a home run. With one out, Metz hits a home run. Then, with two out, Marino hits a home run. That was pretty dramatic when you've had the kind of season we've had. So, we've done alright. We've made some improvements. This is a tough week. Griffith, Munster, KV and Highland.”

On Deck...

Wednesday, 4/27/2005 Lowell at Kankakee Valley - 4:45PM

Friday, 4/29/2005 Highland at Lowell - 4:45PM

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Revised: April 27, 2005.