Connor Mielock was confident early, shaky in the middle and the hero at the end as the Dragons welcomed Rochester Adams into the OAA I, winning a wild league opener 15-8 in nine innings last Wednesday.
They team then opened their home league slate on Monday, using Mielock’s arm to coast to a 9-2 victory.
Against Adams, Mielock homered twice, his second helping the Dragons to a big seven-run ninth inning and making up for a blown save two frames earlier.
All eight Adams runs were unearned, including five in the second off of Lake Orion starter Josh Deeg. Deeg struck out nine in five innings of work.
In the top of the third, the team clawed back, getting a two-run homer from Brandon Riggsbee, a solo shot from Mielock and a two-run blast from Andy Mosier. A dropped third strike with the bases loaded, put the Dragons ahead 6-5.
The team added a run in the fourth, when Mielock hit an infield single, stole second and scored on a botched pickoff attempt.
They scored another in the sixth, when Mike Musary’s sacrifice fly scored Deeg.
In the bottom of the seventh, Mielock was just one out from getting the save, when a costly error and a triple by Adams? Tom Hansen tied the game.
Hansen was stranded at third, sending the game to extra innings.
After an uneventful eighth, the Dragons poured it on in the ninth. Eric Knoblock scored on Chris Baumann’s misplayed grounder, then Deeg singled to score Drew Ordakowski and Baumann, Riggsbee singled to score Vinnie Booker and Mielock’s three-run shot capped the scoring.
Adams went one-two-three in the ninth, including a pair of Mielock strikeouts as the Dragons improved to 3-0 on the season.
Mielock finished the day going 4-for-6 with four RBI. After his first home run, which cut Adams? lead to 5-3, he was greeted by his teammates at the plate and told them emphatically, ‘We’re not going to lose this game.?
‘As soon as Riggs hit his and then I hit mine, I was pretty confident,? he said afterwards. ‘We were only down five and we’re a team that can come back.?
‘We’re a good hitting team, that’s for sure,? Coach Andy Schramek said. ‘This is three games in a row that we’ve put 15 up on the board, but my concern is that we made some base running mistakes and things like that. And they did a nice job capitalizing on our mistakes in the field, kicking balls around. It’s all beginning of the year stuff.?
The Dragons were considerably better defensively against Troy, the defending OAA I champs, committing just one error behind Mielock, who struck out seven in six innings of work.
Musary pitched a scoreless seventh inning for Lake Orion, which was aided by Mosier’s three RBI and Deeg’s 2-for-3 showing at the plate with a pair of runs scored.
The team travels to Farmington today for a rematch of last year’s state title game.