BIG RAPIDS — John Zocco and John
Neph were saying a lot of the same things after Monday’s
doubleheader between Onekama and Crossroads Charter Academy.
Both coaches have teams filled with freshmen and sophomores, which
can lead to fundamental mistakes. Both coaches, however, see those
young players improving as the season goes on.
John Neph was happy to get his team’s first two wins of the season
over Crossroads, by scores of 6-5 and 14-8.
“Getting that first win is always good,” he said. “I liked our
dugout. We were making some mistakes out there, but nobody was
getting down on anybody else. We’ve been preaching a positive
response to a negative, and I think that showed (today).”
Despite picking up a pair of
losses, Zocco said the Cougars are a long way from where they were
at the beginning of the season.
“We played hard and put the
ball in play with two strikes,” he said. “We swung the bat and made
plays. At the beginning of the season we didn’t make plays. There’s
been improvement.”
Game one was a back-and-forth affair, with the Portagers scoring on
a number of wild pitches and throwing errors in the field.
Offensively, Onekama got hits from Joe Eno, Jared Miller and Nolan
Miller. Eno and Miller drove in runs in game one.
Crossroads managed just three hits in game one, with Tanner
Mitchell, David Hunt and Mike Smith collecting base knocks. Smith
had an RBI for the Cougars.
Neph said his team has to make improvements offensively, despite the
solid run totals.
“We got some bunts down that put some pressure on their defense and
allowed us to get our offense going,” he said. “We just made a
couple more plays defensively.”
Eno picked up the win in game
one for Onekama, while Mitchell took the loss for the Cougars.
