UNION TOWNSHIP | Hit by pitch, walk, bunt, infield single, double.
Offense came in many ways, shapes and forms Wednesday for Times No. 9 Bishop Noll.
The Warriors (9-4, 5-0) had every starter score at least a run and eight of them scratched the hit column to whack No. 6 Wheeler 12-3 in a matchup of Greater South Shore Conference unbeatens.
"That's what we need to do," Noll coach Paul Wirtz said. "We don't want it to be one guy getting all the RBIs. We need contributions from everybody. We're not going to hit four, five doubles in an inning to score. We've got to get on base and open it up that way."
Early on, Noll played small ball, taking advantage of Matt Ittersagen's wildness (three walks, four hit batters). In the last two innings, it banged out seven of its 15 hits, three of them doubles, against C.J. Wodetzki.
"We left some guys on early and kind of let them stay in the game but we got some big hits in the middle innings to separate a little bit," Wirtz said. "(Starter Julian Guerrero) didn't have his best stuff so it was key to get some runs. Any time you can score 12 against a team like that, you've got to be happy."
Cody Moskovsky went 3-for-5. Danny Pobereyko, Matt Sandoval and Jaylen Yarbrough all notched two hits and drove in two runs.
"I've been in a little slump but I really came out of the cage and started hitting," Moskovsky said. "They're probably our biggest (GSSC) competition so this was a big game."
Matt Pappas' three-run double in the second inning was all the scoring Wheeler (11-3, 4-1) could muster despite only going down in order once.
"They got a lot of clutch two-out hits in certain situations and we didn't -- that was pretty much the difference in the game," Wheeler coach Josh Long said. "You can get away with giving an average team extra outs, but a good hitting team like Noll is going to take full advantage, especially when you're not sharp pitching. They pretty much outplayed us in every aspect of the game."
Chad Mateja tossed three hitless innings to preserve Guerrero's fourth win.
"Julian battled to give us four innings and Chad came in and threw strikes," Wirtz said. "It's still really early in the conference, but every year, (Wheeler's) at the top, so getting a win against them is big."
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