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04/25/2007TC Central salvages Big North splitKrantz, Diekman key Game 2 win
Alpena catcher Marc Ferguson bobbles the throw as Traverse City Central's Ian Prokes slides safely home in the third inning of Tuesday's game. TRAVERSE CITY — There are five Big North Conference championship banners in center field at Traverse City Central's baseball field. The possibility of a sixth had a lot to do with the second game on Tuesday. After losing 9-6 in the opener, the Trojans bounced back to win the second 9-0 behind the pitching of Kevin Krantz and the timely hitting of Derek Diekman. Both teams are now 3-1 in the league. "Alpena is always a good team,” said Krantz, who struck out 11 in the five-inning contest. "It'd be nice to go 2-0 against them. If not, you have to go 1-1 or the league might be lost right there. It was a big win.” "We did feel that we let the first game slip away,” said Central coach Ian Hearn, whose team has won the last four league crowns. "So we had to get the second game and keep everything in front of us.” Central (7-5) scored three times in each of the first two innings. In the first inning, Josh Pilarski was hit with the bases loaded and Diekman had a two-run single. In the second, Pilarski drew a bases-loaded walk and Diekman had a two-run single. "I just came up with some timely hits I needed for the team,” Diekman said. "You just can't leave runners on the bases, that's the big thing for our team. That's one thing we work on in practice every day, not leaving runners on base.” Central added a run in the fourth on a bloop single to center by Diekman and two in the fifth on a two-run single by Ian Prokes. Krantz, who had two hits at the plate, took it home from there. He scattered three hits. In the opener, Central scored two in the first inning on a double by Prokes and a single by Pilarski to go up 2-1. The Trojans scored four times in the third on a two-run single by Prokes, a RBI single by Diekman and a wild pitch to lead 6-3. But Alpena scored four times in the fourth inning to take the lead and tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the top of the seventh.
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