Lexington's aggressiveness at the plate, pays off in two-game baseball sweep of Mansfield Senior
LEXINGTON — After defeating Mansfield Senior a day earlier, Lexington got off to another fast start Wednesday against the Tygers and secured an 11-3 Ohio Cardinal Conference win to complete a two-game sweep.
Minutemen coach Jeff Strickler repeatedly used the word "front foot" after Wednesday win, referring to his club being a little complacent at the plate while playing with a big lead. He saw it during the Minutemen's 11-0 win on Tuesday against Mansfield Senior (2-8), too.
"One of the things we talk about is being focused, and it seemed like we were doing that at one point. We made some adjustments based on who we were facing on the mound," said Strickler. "We have a tendency to get on our front foot a lot. We had to remind them as the game went along that we were creeping back out with that front foot again. We didn't want them to let down after yesterday."
The Minutemen (6-8) sure got on the front foot early as they tagged on four runs in the first inning and put their OCC opposition in another hole for the second day running.
"I think we did pretty good being aggressive. Sometimes we get out on our front foot early, especially after seeing pretty fast pitching over the past week," said Lexington third baseman Braden Mumaw, who went 2-for-4 and drove in two runs. "We just have to keep working on staying back and taking it opposite field and being confident."
The Minutemen produced another strong inning in the third with three more runs and RBIs by Landon Hamilton, Michael Togliatti and Donavan Legron to give Lexington a 7-0 lead.
The Tygers' young group fought back in the sixth, though, getting some runners on base and scoring three runs, inslcuding Peyton Page's two-run double.
"We're developing and growing. Yesterday, we were a little intimidating because it was a conference game," said Mansfield Senior coach J.R. Davis. "I think we play in one of the top conferences in the area, if not the best. Like you saw in the top of the sixth inning where we put up those runs and caused some chaos, that's what we have to do, and these kids are learning."
As the game went along with Lexington holding a comfortable lead, the Minutemen sometimes got anxious at the plate, often swinging at the first pitch when maybe they should have worked the count more. Batters got out on grounders and popouts. Next thing you know, the Tygers were heading to their dugout ready to bat in no time.
That's all a part of the not being on the "front foot," a concern Strickler elaborated on.
"That's part of being on the front foot," he said. "That's when they're going to be popping it up like that. Yesterday, after the first couple of innings we had a talk about being aggressive at the plate because we were looking at too many good pitches and getting behind in the count. I thought we did a better job today at attacking the ball."
"Yeah, that's just us being on our front foot," Mumaw said. "Dipping our shoulder. Getting a little anxious like you said."
The Minutemen closed things strong in the sixth, when they answered with four runs behind some feisty hitting.
The Minutemen had eight different players drive in a run and had three innings in which they scored three or more runs in their second consecutive game of scoring 11 runs total. Looking to get on the winning track, Strickler said he likes where his team is heading.
"This is actually the fourth game in a row we actually played well," he said. "Last week against Highland, they only beat us by two runs. Then we beat Bellevue on Saturday. These two games I thought we played pretty well. Defensively, we didn't make too many mistakes. I like where we're headed. I do."
jsimpson@gannett.com
Twitter: @JamesSimpsonII
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Lexington's aggressiveness at the plate, pays off in two-game baseball sweep of Mansfield Senior
