Heery, Tribe blank No. Lehigh

Opening Day often brings as much excitement as it does uncertainty.

Every baseball team faces question marks heading into the season. And while one game doesn’t dispel many of those doubts, it can go a long way toward offering a program a sense of reassurance.

Led by a dominant performance from starting pitcher Sean Heery, Lehighton started its season in convincing fashion Tuesday with a 10-0 non-league win over Northern Lehigh.

“It’s good. It’s important,” Indians’ head coach Brian Polaha said of the victory. “We have a lot of young, inexperienced guys that we are playing, and I’ll tell you what, some of them looked good. They took advantage of the opportunities, and that’s the thing that I always hope that happens … as long as they seize those opportunities, that makes me happy; that’s all we could hope for.

“Today we did a good job. We know we’re in a difficult conference, but it’s always good to get a win. It’s always good to start off 1-0.”

Heery settled in after throwing six straight balls to start the game, scattering two hits across six innings of work, striking out 10 while issuing just three walks.

“It gives me a better idea to see what I’m able to do with this team,” Heery said. “Where I can pitch, what I can do.”

After posting a 3.15 ERA with 26 strikeouts in 40 innings a year ago, Polaha had no reservations about Heery’s readiness coming into the season.

“Especially in the Northeast, where the weather is like this, pitching is always ahead of hitting,” Polaha said. “So the No. 1 thing is, you want to come out, and you want to throw strikes, and for the most part he did that today.”

The senior got plenty of run support, too.

Lehighton’s offense was opportunistic, building a 3-0 lead through four innings. The Indians cashed in on errors in the first and second innings, and utilized a walk to begin the fourth to start their rallies.

The bats caught fire in the final two innings.

Zach Crum smashed the first pitch of the fifth for a leadoff double, and Michael Bozilesky followed with an infield single. Crum scored on a single from Logan Wentz to push Lehighton’s lead to 4-0, while Bozilesky came home on a wild pitch to push the lead to 5-0 heading to the sixth inning.

Crum followed back-to-back walks from leadoff hitter Mason Barndt and Chris Whiteman by lashing a two-run single to make it 7-0 before Wentz followed with his second hit of the game to score Crum and make it 8-0.

A bases-loaded walk by Jason Pryce gave the Indians a 9-0 lead. With the bases still full, Ethan Lutz grounded out to score Randy Bongiorno to make it 10-0 and put the mercy rule into effect.

“We were scratching a run across here and there, but then as we got going, as we got through the lineup more, you could tell our hitters got more comfortable and we had better at-bats,” said Polaha. “Now we mix in a walk and an error with a couple hits in there, and all of a sudden it’s opened up.”

Lehighton hopes it’s a trend that continues.

“I thought it was great,” said Wentz. “It was a team effort. Everybody out there, doing their job, and it ended up in a win.

“It feels good. Baseball is a game of momentum; ups and downs. And to have such a great start, it’s awesome.”

HITTERS … Bulldogs’ starting pitcher Gio Colon and Brandon Hess had Northern Lehigh’s two hits.

CRUISING … After Hess got on to open the top of the fifth inning, Heery recorded five straight strikeouts spanning the fifth and sixth innings. The run ended when Luke Eitner drew a two-out walk in the sixth before Colon was retired on a groundout to end the inning.

No. Lehigh 000 000 - 0 2 3

Lehighton 110 125 - 10 8 0

Heery and Wentz; Colon, Long (5) and Rudolph. W – Heery. L – Colon.