In order to beat the weather forcast, the Streaks travelled to Rock Island on Friday night rather than the traditional Saturday morning contest. Galesburg handled the change in routine well as they completed a two game sweep of Rock Island to move their record to 18-3.There are, of course, many contributions from players when you complete a sweep. Tonight was no different. But, some of the names that top that list of contributors might suprise an educated Streaks baseball fan. In game one, Tyler Farrell continued his streak of not allowing an earned run and picked up the complete game shut out. He was dominant, recording 8 strikeouts. His contributions are impressive and have become standard.
But, offensively, a name you might not recognize as a normal contributor is Nate Mines. Here is a player who had yet to record a varsity hit in limited action as a senior. Nate was thrust into a starting role because normal starter, Andrew Steck, was participating in the assembly at school and could not leave early to catch the bus. He proceeded to record his first 3 varsity hits and 2 RBI's to pace the GHS offense. I have personally had the pleasure of coaching Nate in two sports and, I promise, there is no better example of a team player than him. He wont wow anybody with his skill set, but he is at the top of the list of hardest workers and all around nicest kids I have ever been around. He is truley more interested in the success of the team than his own personal gains, and for that, Nate will be a player I remember for a long time. He was a huge contributor tonight recording 5 hits and 3 RBI's in the two games. He stepped up in a big way tonight and he deserves any and all accolades for that.
Game two was more traditional as far as the regular culprits for GHS coming through. Nick Milligan struggle through some command issues but only gave up two hits and 5 runs. The offense came through in a big way pounding out 12 runs in the victory. Big hits came from Dalton Davis, who always seems to find a way on base, Chad Johson, Zach McCrery, and Milli. The latter three have been struggling as of late and seemed to begin to break out of it a little in game two. When those three are one, there is no doubt that our lineup is one of the toughest around. I hope they can continue to improve as we have a little less than a month left.
A couple of interesting notes...McCrery upped his RBI total to 34 just 14 shy of the school record...Coach Gonzalez told me he had never been a part of a sweep at Rocky in his tenure of coaching...the school record for wins in a season is 32-which is reachable depending on our post season run.
Our fans travelled well tonight. I hope to see our numbers continue to grow in that department. Go Streaks!
