As he examined the 2004 schedule earlier this season, Rich Sturm, the head baseball coach at Oakville Senior High School knew that last week was going to be a tough week for his Tigers.

Not only did Oakville have to face Hillsboro and Eureka last week, but when you figure in all of the distractions from the spring break vacation, you realize the difficulty in the Tigers’ schedule.

The Tigers seemed to be daydreaming during the first 3½ innings of play as they found themselves down 6-0 going into the bottom of the fourth inning.

Yet what rattled the Tigers’ cage was a solo home run shot by senior starting pitcher Eric Brewer, which was one of two runs scored in the bottom of the fourth.

Oakville went on to score three runs in the fifth and sixth innings to storm back to an impressive 8-6 win over the Hawks.

“We showed some resiliency by bouncing back,” Sturm told the Call. “Hillsboro is a scrappy team and they had a lot of quality at-bats by putting alot of pressure on us.”

Junior pitcher Andy Marks received the win in relief mode since he gave up zero hits in 11/3 innings pitched, as he walked one and struck out two in his third win of the season.

The Tigers followed up the April 6 win at home against Hillsboro with an 8-3 win over Eureka on April 7. Oakville held a commanding 7-0 lead after just two innings of play, which quickly tamed the Wildcats.

“All the way around, I was extremely pleased with how well we did against them (Eureka),” Sturm said.

“We talked about how we needed to take care of business at home this week and we did that.”

Marks threw 61/3 innings as he gave up just three runs on five hits. The junior hurler walked three and struck out seven in win No. 4 of the 2004 campaign.

“When he (Marks) has got all three of his pitches working, he’s really tough to beat,” Sturm said.

Senior third baseman Tim Andrew was outstanding at the plate as he went 4-4 with a double and two runs scored and one run batted in.

“Offensively he’s done a great job at working the count and really battled to keep things alive for us,” Sturm said. “Defensively he hasn’t made an error this season and I think he’s done an excellent job over at the corner this year.”

Oakville returns to play Friday afternoon as they travel to Seckman for a key Suburban South Conference meeting.

“They (Seckman) are a very well coached team,” Sturm said.

“They play hard and always come out ready to play Oakville. What we have to do is go out and play an error-free ballgame in order to win.”

The Tigers’ match against Seckman is scheduled for a 4:15 p.m. start.