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Posted on Mon, Apr 22, 2013 : 11:19 p.m.

Skyline baseball sharp in doubleheader sweep of Chelsea

By Kyle Austin

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Skyline High School was playing its second game with house money. And it played like it had nothing to lose.

Ben Sadis threw a complete game, two-hit effort in the nightcap as the Eagles took the sweep with wins of 11-5 and 5-2 Monday night at Chelsea.

More Coverage: Game 1 Boxscore | Game 2 Boxscore

“The goal coming in here is to always win one out of two, and if you win the second one, that’s a huge bonus,” Skyline coach Frank Garcia said. “They’re a good team, they’re well-coached, they play good defense, they put pressure on you and you have to play well to beat them.”

The doubleheader wins run Skyline’s record to 6-1 on the season, including 2-0 in Southeastern Conference play. Chelsea, meanwhile, fell to 1-5 on the year and 0-2 in the SEC, following a state quarterfinal appearance last season.

Before Sadis stymied the Chelsea offense in the second game, the Eagles won the first game by taking advantage of some Bulldogs mound miscues. Bulldogs pitchers walked seven batters, hit one, and threw seven wild pitches in the first game. In the fourth inning alone, six batters got on base without recording a hit.

Chelsea coach Adam Taylor said his pitchers getting behind in counts contributed to the team’s struggles.

“The whole story is, we didn’t throw strike one in the first game, we didn’t play catch, and we don’t value the little things,” Taylor said.

The top of Skyline’s order was the biggest beneficiary of Chelsea’s struggles on the mound. Skyline’s first three hitters -- Justin Woods, Joel Frison and Jack Clark -- scored eight combined runs despite recording only three hits. The trio got on base 10 times in 12 combined plate appearances.

Four of those runs were driven in by cleanup hitter Brody Stevens, who hit a two-run double in the sixth.

“The first four or five guys in our lineup have really been stroking the ball well,” Garcia said. “I think the last four or five guys can also hit the ball well. We didn’t show it today. We haven’t gotten a lot of at-bats this year so guys are a little reluctant to let it loose.”

Frison finished with a team-high four hits on the day, and Patrick Lewis had three. Clark started the first game, and gave up four runs, one earned, over six innings of work, with four hits.

ben-sadis-skyline-baseball-04222013.jpeg

Skyline's Ben Sadis gave up only one earned run in seven innings Monday.

Daniel Brenner | AnnArbor.com

But the line of the day went to Skyline’s second pitcher, Sadis, who gave up only one earned run, walked only one batter and struck out six.

“He was outstanding today,” Garcia said of Sadis. “He was pounding the strike zone, he threw all of his pitches for strikes. They put the ball in play and we made the plays behind him.”

Garrett Farmer finished with a team-high four hits on the day for Chelsea, including three in the first game, with two stolen bases and a run scored.

But early in the season, the Bulldogs are feeling the hangover from going on a deep state tournament run with a senior-led squad.

“Whenever you have a good year and you’re a senior dominated team the year before, you have guys that haven’t played a ton, and it’s their time to compete,” Taylor said. “We’ve got seven seniors again, not many of them played a very big role last year when we made a run. So this is all kind of new to them I guess.”

Kyle Austin covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kyleaustin@annarbor.com or 734-623-2535. Follow him on Twitter @KAustin_AA.

Comments

Duane Collicott

Tue, Apr 23, 2013 : 4:28 p.m.

JV also won both their games, coming back from a 1-5 deficit in the bottom of the 7th and winning 7-6 in the 8th, then controlling the second game to win 3-7.

Pete Cunningham

Tue, Apr 23, 2013 : 2:26 p.m.

Chelsea's scoreboard is awesome.

Salbolal

Tue, Apr 23, 2013 : 11:53 a.m.

Excellent photos!

Daniel Brenner

Tue, Apr 23, 2013 : 2:47 p.m.

Baseball is the perfect setting for any photographer. The combination of emotion, anticipating where the action is going to be, and the beautiful light makes any sports shooter happy. Be on the look out for the Team of the Week gallery in a couple days, will be a nice selection of pictures.

Kyle Austin

Tue, Apr 23, 2013 : 12:08 p.m.

Dan spent the whole four hours shooting yesterday and said he came away with about 1,600 photos in all to choose from. Bound to find a few gems in there.

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