by Devan Matthews

Correspondent

The Nordonia High School baseball team split a pair of games recently, but the Knights won the two that mattered the most, the division encounters.

Nordonia battled Northeast Ohio Conference Lake Division rival Parma in a home-and-away series last week. The Knights clashed with the Redmen at home April 21 and then traveled to Parma the following day.

Nordonia won the first game, edging the Redmen by the score of 4-3. Freshman Zack Lewis hurled a complete game on the mound for the Knights, striking out five batters and allowing just four hits.

"He did a really good job of keeping the ball down," said Nordonia head coach Eric Cormell. "There were a lot of ground balls, and we only committed one error."

At the plate, junior A.J. Janisek socked a home run and singled, while senior Ben Shoop slapped a pair of singles.

"We put together a pretty good game offensively, defensively and pitching-wise," said Cormell.

The Knights won the next day as well, posting a 13-10 victory. This time, junior Eric Simon went the distance to notch the pitching win.

"We had another really good game defensively, with no errors," said Cormell. "And we only had one or two walks, and we hit the ball pretty well."

Nordonia boasted a number of players with multiple hits. The Knights were led by senior Jason Jacobs and junior Adam Pike, who both smashed home runs and singled.

Other major contributors for Nordonia were Shoop (double, single), senior Bryan Nowak (two singles) and freshman Trevor Hawks (two singles.)

April 26, the Knights traveled to non-conference foe Revere to battle the Minutemen in a doubleheader. Nordonia dropped both ends of the twin bill.

Revere captured the opener 14-9. Then the Minutemen won the second game 10-6.

"Once again, we experienced some defensive problems," said Cormell. "We hit the ball well, but we had six errors in the first game and five errors in the second game. You can't give other teams extra outs, especially teams that are as good as Revere. When you score nine runs and lose, that's tough."

Shoop, who's batting .519, was 2-for-4 in each game with a double and triple. In addition, senior Jason Sabo was 2-for-3 and Jacobs singled twice in the first game.

Hawks smacked a triple and single in the first game. In the second contest, he added another triple and single, as well as four RBIs.

With that split of games, Nordonia sports an overall record of 5-10. The Knights also are 2-0 in the division.

"As a team, we're hitting .325," said Cormell. "Our pitchers are giving up a lot of runs, though, and we're not helping them out defensively, either. When we do, we win ballgames. When we have six errors, we're not going to win. We're definitely playing better baseball; we're just not getting away with making errors."

April 28, Nordonia was scheduled to battle division nemesis Twinsburg on the road.

The following day, the Knights were to host the Tigers.

"They're also 2-0 in the division," said Cormell of Twinsburg. "They're the team to beat at the moment. If we can win the next two games, we might have the inside track to the division championship."

May 1, Nordonia was scheduled to clash with non-league foe Ravenna at home under the lights. Game time is slated for 7 p.m.

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