Saturday, May 12, 2007

Oakland pitching limited Valparaiso to just one run over two games on Saturday afternoon, sweeping a doubleheader against the Crusaders 7-1 and 4-0 in Rochester, Mich.

The Crusaders jumped in front in the opening inning of game one with back-to-back singles. With two outs, Brian Rzepka (South Bend, Ind./Penn H.S.) singled to shortstop, bringing home Jeff Rickert (Hamilton, Ohio/Fairfield H.S.) with the game's first run.

Oakland answered quickly, as a single and walk, followed by two groundouts produced the Golden Grizzlies' first run of the contest. Dan Ryan added a double down the line to plate the second run of the inning.

Two errors led to three unearned runs for Oakland in the second to increase the hosts lead to 5-1. The lead grew to 7-1 in the fifth as Andy Shepherd singled home a run and another crossed the plate courtesy of another Crusader error.

Matt Trausch (5-3) allowed just three hits after the first inning on the way to the victory for Oakland. He struck out seven and did not walk a hitter while giving up just six hits total. Elliott Gibbs (Munster, Ind./Munster H.S.) suffered the loss (2-7), surrendering six runs, three of which were unearned, and six hits in 4.1 innings.

Michael Arensdorff (Eldridge, Iowa/North Scott H.S.) and Dan DeBruin (Combined Locks, Wis./Kimberly H.S.) each had two hits for the Brown and Gold. Justin Wilson went 3-for-5 for Oakland in the opener.

Game two was a pitcher's duel from the start. With the game scoreless in the fourth, Justin Carkeek led off the Oakland half inning with a double and scored two outs later on Shepherd's RBI single. The Golden Grizzlies added two more runs in the fifth on a double by Carkeek to increase the lead to 3-0.

Oakland added another run in the sixth on a single by Drew Jenison and Shepherd, who was 3-for-3 in the game, came around to score on a throwing error.

Dan Dobberowsky (3-2) limited Valpo to just four hits, two by Rickert, in the complete game victory for the Golden Grizzlies. Matt Evans (Brighton, Mich./Brighton H.S.) suffered the loss, allowing eight hits in his six innings of work.

Valparaiso (17-30, 6-9 Mid-Con) and Oakland (18-30-3-12) will wrap up their weekend series on Sunday afternoon in Rochester. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. CDT.