Flyers baseball looks to turn up play a notch or two

By STEPHEN GLOVER

For the Call

When you take a quick glance at the record of the baseball team at Lindbergh Senior High School, you think that a 6-3 record is a pretty good start to the 2003 season.

Yet once you dig a little deeper into that record, you notice that the Flyers currently are 0-2 in the Suburban West Confer-ence as of this past weekend.

With that said, Head Coach Darren Scott is looking for his players to pick it up a notch or two when it comes to conference play.

“From what I’ve seen in this conference, you’ve got to come to play every day or else somebody’s going to beat you,” Scott told the Call. “I do think that a conference record of 9-5 or 8-6 could possibly win the conference this year.”

Lindbergh (6-3, 0-2 Suburban West) opened up conference play last Wednes-day afternoon against Fox and came up short in a 10-9 loss to the Warriors.

The Flyers found themselves down 6-1 after three innings of play, yet battled back in the top of the fourth inning as they hammered out five runs to tie the score at six runs a piece.

“It was a disappointing loss because the kids battled back,” Scott said. “Fox is a pretty good hitting ballclub. They’ve definitely improved this year.”

The Flyers added three runs in the fifth inning to take a 9-7 lead going into the sixth. But the Warriors answered with two runs in the seventh and one in the eighth for the win. Lindbergh starting pitcher Dan Gabris went six innings while giving up nine runs on 11 hits. The junior thrower did walk four and struck out four in the no-decision effort.

“Dan just didn’t have his best stuff that day,” Scott said. “He got behind in the count on a lot of hitters and was not able to spot his fastball as he did in the past.

Junior Charlie Schinsky took the loss for the Flyers as he gave up one run in one inning pitched. Schinsky did have a nice day at the plate as he had two hits on four plate appearances in which he drove in a run, recorded a double and stole a base.

“Charlie’s been hitting the ball pretty well for us,” Scott said. “He’s been bounced around the lineup and we’re trying to find him a spot where we can get him on base more often.”

Life didn’t get much easier for the Flyers as they stumbled in a 7-1 pounding at the hands of Parkway Central.

“We faced a pretty tough lefthander in Mark Pratzel,” Scott said. “He did a good job at keeping our hitters off-balance and we just couldn’t seem to get anything going.”

Pratzel ended the day by striking out seven Lindbergh batters and walking just three in the seven-inning effort.

Lindbergh’s Tom Kammerer recorded the loss for the Flyers as he gave up five runs on six hits in just one inning of play. The senior thrower did record one strikeout in the losing effort.

“Tom’s just got to get ahead of the hitters,” Scott said.

One of the few bright spots on the Lind-bergh roster against Parkway Central was junior catcher Andrew Spitzfaden, who drove in the team’s only run in the top of the third inning on a double.

“It’s a definite luxury in having Andrew behind the plate,” Scott said. “Every at-bat is just a battle with him. He’s really a plus to our team and is a definite team leader.”

The Flyers ended their two-game losing streak last Saturday with a 9-3 win over Saint Mary’s. The Flyers found themselves down 2-1 after the first inning, but exploded in the fourth with a six-run outburst which was the difference in their sixth victory of the season.

“It was a night and day difference than the Parkway Central game,” Scott said. “I was very proud of the way our guys focused and went about their work during the game.”

Senior center fielder Chris Luebbert was hot at the plate as he pounded out three hits which included a two-run dinger in the fourth inning. Luebbert also drove in two runs and ended up stealing a base in the Flyers win.”

The Flyers will return to action this Wednesday as they travel to Marquette for a conference matchup with the Mustangs. Lindbergh will return to play again on Thursday as they play host to Parkway West. Both games start at 4:15 p.m.