A new team attitude is already paying dividends for the varsity baseball team.
The Wildcats defeated Warren De La Salle Pilots, last year’s Division I state champions, 7-6 to open the 2010 season.
‘It’s always nice when you are saying it’s going to be a different kind of year and a different kind of ball club and come out and get a victory against a quality program like that,? said Head Coach Jeff Willis.
Oxford took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning when senior Mitch Stefaniski hit a two-run home run over the centerfield wall. The lead was extended to 4-0 in the fourth inning when Keith Paslean hit a triple that drove in two of his four total RBI’s on the day.
However, De La Salle started chipping away, scoring two runs in the fifth, and one run in the sixth, seventh and eight inning off of Wildcat pitchers Clayton Spiker and Neil Maskill to take a 5-4 lead.
‘That was the typical of way we played last year, we would build a lead, give it up and not be able to give it back,? said Willis.
This time would be different as Paslean was the hero in the Wildcats three run eighth inning. He drove in his final two runs on a double, which gave Oxford a 6-5 lead. Their final run came on an error.
But De La Salle would not go away.
The Pilots scored one run in the top of the ninth and put a man on third with one out before grounding out to first with the infield pulled in and winning pitcher Billy Kammerer striking out the last De La Salle batter to seal the victory.
‘For us to take a lead, go down a couple, come back and win it makes me really think that we are off on the right foot and we are headed in the right direction.?
Paslean would also pitch two scoreless innings for the Wildcats, followed by two more scoreless innings from Eric Perry.
‘The first two pitchers were throwing strikes and after that we played some defense behind the pitching we got. We got some timely hitting in the right situations which are the things we have been working on so far this year,? Willis said.
He added that it was nice to see the players come out and play that type of game after only two weeks of practice.
The victory gives the Wildcats a 1-0 record heading into the Oakland County Spring Break tournament on April 5, 7 & 10.