By Kevin Cunningham
Correspondent
After a 5-2 start to the season, the Delavan-Darien High School baseball team has now lost five straight games after two losses last week.
The Comets first faced Milton on April 25 at home.
Head coach Mike Grover said the defensive performance was poor in this game, and the four errors committed throughout showed evidence of that. Milton got off to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning and never trailed.
In the top of the fourth inning, Milton added five more runs and eventually went on to win, 9-1. Milton recorded 12 hits as a team compared to the Comets’ six. Milton also had zero errors.
Of the Comets’ six hits, Jacob Benzing had three of those, going 3-for-4 at the plate, but failing to knock a run in. Seven different players from Milton scored in the game.
Of the six runs allowed by Ethan Cesarz, only one was earned in his 3.2 innings pitched. A day later, the team travelled to play Waterford and again never held a lead.
Waterford first took the lead in the bottom of the second inning by scoring two runs and scored runs in every inning outside of the first. The biggest inning for Waterford was the fifth, when it scored six runs.
The Comets recorded just four hits in the game, but scored three runs. Grover said the pitching and defense was an issue in the game, especially against the No. 7-ranked team in the area according to the Journal Sentinel.
“We had some errors that opened up the flood gates in the fifth inning,” Grover said. “We had too many walks and too many errors. Our poor defense and inability to get ‘the hit’ to score runs has been the difference in our losses. The players remain up and optimistic for the rest of the season.
“We have a great bunch of kids and our best baseball is yet to come from them. Jake Benzing, Ethan Cesarz and Jordan Ziolkowski have been our best offensive weapons so far this season.”
This week, the Comets will face Waterford again after the game on April 28 was postponed to Friday. The team’s first game was scheduled for Tuesday against Wilmot, and then on Thursday, the team will play Wilmot again at 5 p.m. at home.
