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Sports
Providing a nice, balanced win : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisProviding a nice, balanced win
| Jungels, Miller stifle Eagles' bats en route to combined shutout
| by Laura M. Medina
| 7/1/2010
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There might not be a rivalry matchup or conference championship at stake in many summer baseball leagues, but Oswego East's most recent game definitely resembled the team's familiar in-season form.
Pitchers Paxon Jungels and Matt Miller limited the opposition to four hits, and the Wolves hammered out 10 of their own to rout visiting Aurora Christian 8-0 on Tuesday afternoon. Oswego East was scheduled to host Sandwich on Wednesday in a doubleheader, but results were unavailable at press time.
"The biggest thing for us is that this is like spring training - we're getting looks at different guys at different positions," Wolves' head coach Jim Vera said. "The main thing we emphasize for them all summer is that this is a tryout. It's a 20-game tryout for them. We try to work on different things each week...and we try to put it all together, but mainly, it's getting experience."
The experience Oswego East (6-3) gained Tuesday revolved around the importance of staunch pitching, tight defense and timely hitting.
Jungels' performance on the mound set the tone for the game. The right-hander retired the first two hitters he faced before catcher Jake Hansen singled to left field, but that didn't rattle Jungels, who induced Aurora Christian pitcher Kenny McCracken's flyout to left field to end the inning.
Like Jungels, McCracken had two easy outs to start his half of the first before allowing Danny Klingbeil's long double to right-center. Klingbeil then came around to score on center fielder Bobby Smith's single to right to make it 1-0 before the inning was over.
The second passed without much of a scoring threat, as each starter quickly retired the three batters that stepped to the plate.
Jungels surrendered third baseman Todd Clapp's double to the left-field gap to kick off the third, but the runner didn't advance until Michael Free's walk two batters later. Neither player, however, came around to score, as shortstop Josh Haugen and centerfielder Bobby Kuntzendorf each flew out to Smith to end the inning.
Clapp relieved McCracken in the bottom of the third, which proved to be rather eventful for Oswego East, whose first three hitters - left fielder Jake Litkenhus, second baseman Andy Jaskolski and Miller - reached base without recording an out.
Clapp was quickly spelled by another Aurora Christian hurler, whose matchup against the batter Smith (1-for-4, two RBIs) resulted in a sacrifice fly that brought Litkenhus home.
Jungels then helped himself, sending Jaskolski (2-for-4, two runs) and Miller (two runs) across the plate on a hit that rolled through first baseman Nick Chamberlain's legs to give the Wolves a 4-0 lead over the Eagles (8-6) heading into the fourth.
"For half the guys, it's their first time as varsity players, so getting at-bats against varsity pitchers is important," Vera said. "My philosophy in the summer is that early on, I don't really call anything the first time through the lineup because the at-bats are so important that I don't want them to feel (any extra pressure). In a lot of ways, they're on their own over the summer."
Jungels traded places with Miller at the start of the fourth due to a bit of arm soreness, but his discomfort didn't keep him from playing well in the field.
"It got better after I stopped pitching, but I don't know what it was," said Jungels, who surrendered two hits in three innings of work. "I just got a little tired, I guess."
Miller wasn't fazed by the position switch either, and he came in to record two strikeouts against the first three Aurora Christian hitters he encountered.
Oswego East added another run in its half of the fourth, with Litkenhus sending third baseman Adam Kishanov around to score on his long double to right field.
Miller then did his part in the top of the fifth, limiting the Eagles to just one hit and maintaining the Wolves' 5-0 advantage heading into their half of the frame.
"I thought we made some real nice plays...and that's the key for us is our defense," Vera said. "I was very disappointed in our defense last spring, and obviously, our emphasis this summer is gonna be basically making plays. That's what we're looking at now - guys that can make the plays out there. That's our end game for the summer is trying to see who our best defensive team is."
It seems Oswego East's objective is also to execute effectively on the basepaths. That was evident in the fifth, when Jungels drilled a two-out single to right that brought Miller home for a 6-0 lead.
"Being a good hitter means you can pick your teammates up," said Jungels, who went 2-for-3 with three RBIs on the day.
Miller, who gave up two hits and fanned three in four innings of work, picked up the Wolves by setting down all three batters he faced in the sixth. The Wolves then tacked on two additional runs in their half of the sixth to account for the final score.
"I thought we played very well - we hit the ball well, they were aggressive on the bases, and our pitchers did a nice job, too," Vera said. "We did everything right."
With the way the Wolves performed Tuesday, it was not surprising that they wanted to keep that momentum going as their summer slate progressed.
"I think with every summer game, there's not a whole lot of emphasis on a conference win or anything, so basically it's like having good individual performances, so that they translate to a successful summer," Vera said. "That's one of the things we talked about, that the best thing we can learn is how to win a game. And both levels have done it, and that helps them in games when it's been close. We need, for the most part, to just keep playing, keep being consistent, keep hitting the ball and keep playing good defense."
•Notes: Oswego East split a doubleheader on Monday at Marmion, winning 4-0 and losing 3-0. The Wolves also beat Montini 2-0 last Thursday while Oswego East's scheduled doubleheader against Plainfield North on June 23 was canceled because of severe weather.
-Oswego East is set to return to the field at 4 p.m. next Tuesday for a home doubleheader against Yorkville.
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