May 29, 1999

Genoa rockets to 8-1 victory over Seneca East

By Dave Feltner
Sports Editor

FINDLAY &emdash; It's been quite the career for Seneca East's Mike Breyman so far. Whether it be on the mound or at the plate, the Tiger junior has been about as dominating as a high school player can be.

But Friday afternoon Breyman and the Tigers found out that even the best ones have a nemesis.

Genoa's Eric McDaniel, the same Eric McDaniel who homered off Breyman in the regional semifinals in 1997, went deep twice off the Seneca East starter to fuel an 8-1 Genoa victory in the Division III regional semis on Friday.

"The first one I hit I think he messed up and threw me a curveball right down the pike," McDaniel said. "The second one I hit was a low fastball. I wasn't even going to swing because I thought (Tom) Cooley was going to steal home. I thought I missed a sign. I heard his footsteps and I thought 'Oh no.' But the pitch was low and I just took it."

McDaniel's first blast set the tone for the game. The second one put it away.

Breyman misfired on his first six pitches of the game, and even though he recovered to strike out Jon Dunn, McDaniel made him pay for the early wildness by sending a curveball deep over the left field fence to give the Comets (27-4) an early 2-0 lead.

Genoa manufactured a pair of runs in the fourth, thanks to two of Seneca East's five errors, to set up McDaniel's second two-run homer in the fifth that made it 6-0.

"(The first homer) was a big hit for Genoa," Seneca East coach Frank Lamoreaux said. "The McDaniel kid is tough. Every time up he hit the ball hard. He was 2-for-4 and if he would have pulled that one pitch (on a flyout out to center) he would have had another home run.

"We were trying to keep it off his hands," he said. "But Mike made a mistake in the first inning on the curveball. "The second one he hit a good pitch. We were trying to bust him inside and went down and got it."

McDaniel wasn't the only story on the Comet side. Starting pitcher Jeff Keaton was brilliant, allowing just three hits over the first six innings. Keaton struck out eight and had most of his success throwing first-pitch strikes to the Tiger hitters.

"That's something we preach to all of our pitchers," Genoa coach Gary Nissen said. "It's a stat that we keep track of all year. We want to teach the kids to throw strikes and get ahead. Once you're ahead of hitters the batting averages go down. It's a great situation for us. When we get the first strike we can do what ever we want after that."

Breyman singled in the first and belted his 21st home run of the season in the seventh, but in between the Tiger hitters were virtually dry.

Rusty Wagner singled in the third, but was picked off first, and singles by Paul Young in the sixth and Brian Bischoff in the seventh were the only other Seneca East (21-2) hits.

Breyman reached second base in the first on an error by the left fielder, but other than his homer, the Tigers never got another runner past first.

"(Keaton) spotted his ball very well," Lamoreaux said. "We were swinging more at his pitches instead of looking for our pitches. When (Genoa was) ahead in the count they were swinging hard, trying to do something with the ball. We didn't do that until it was too late."

The Comets' final two runs came on RBI singles by Cooley and Matt Dunn in the sixth. Dave Rymers had a pair of hits, including a double, for Genoa.

"We made too many mistakes," Lamoreaux said. "Defensively, we didn't play very well, and offensively we didn't do our homework as well as we should have. This late in the season you can't afford to make mistakes like that."