Comets’ offense struggles against Waterford
By Kevin Cunningham
Correspondent
After starting the 2015 season 5-3 overall, the Delavan-Darien baseball team has now lost three straight games – two of them last week against the Waterford Wolverines.
On April 28, the Comets hit the road to play Waterford in the first of the team’s two games against the Wolverines for the week. Coming off a game against Burlington, in which the Comets got shut out, losing 10-0, head coach Paul Yanko said the team just needs to start making contact at the plate.
Sophomore pitcher Ethan Cesarz got the offense going in the top of the first, scoring another sophomore pitcher in Jacob Benzing with a single, giving the Comets the early 1-0 lead. After the top of the first inning though, the offense didn’t get much going.
Over the next six innings, Delavan-Darien amassed three hits, while adding one more run. The two runs weren’t enough, as Waterford got nine hits in the game, totaling seven runs.
On top of the 7-2 loss, the Comets committed four errors, but had a chance at revenge against the Wolverines two days later at home. In the second game of the week, the offense continued to struggle.
Waterford started the game at the top of the first inning, scoring a run and never looking back. Delavan-Darien’s offense had one bright spot in senior shortstop Isiah Ramos, when went 2-for-4 from the plate.
Despite Ramos’ success, he could never drive home a run in the game, and the Comets suffered their second straight loss to Waterford, and third straight overall, 6-0. Outside of Ramos, the offense combined to go 3-for-22 in the game, and struck out seven times.
“Basically, we need to have better at-bats,” Yanko said. “Way too many strikeouts. If you put the ball in play, that puts pressure on the other team to make plays, but we’re not doing enough of that.”
Ahead for the Comets, who are now 5-6 overall, are four games in the span of five days. The week will start with a home-and-away against Wilmot Union High School Tuesday and Thurday and end with travel to Badger and Milton on Friday and Saturday.
Wilmot Union enters the Tuesday game at 1-4 overall, while the Comets will have an opportunity to get back to .500.
