Bloomington Central Catholic bring Oakwood’s baseball season to an end

By Fred Kroner

Oakwood’s Comets were limited to one hit – a single – and dropped a 15-0 decision to Bloomington Central Catholic on Wednesday (May 24) in the IHSA baseball Class 2A sectional semifinals at Decatur’s Millikin University.

Bryson Marcinko was the lone Oakwood player with a hit. He also drew the team’s only walk. Only one other teammate reached base in the five-inning contest.

Travis Tiernan was hit by a pitch.

Dalton Hobick pitched two innings and was relieved by Alec Harrison, who also threw two innings.

Oakwood’s Vermilion Valley Conference champions finished the year with a 26-7-1 overall record after its nine-game winning streak was snapped by BCC (16-10).

Hobick (.412 batting average) was one of four Comets with at least 40 at-bats to hit above .300. The others were Joshua Ruch (.344), Matthew Miller (.323) and Travis Tiernan (.317).

Hobick led the team in hits (49), runs scored (45), stolen bases (school-record 37), doubles (16) and extra-base hits (19). He also had the most games with two, or more, hits (18).

He shared the team-lead in runs batted in (35) with Joshua Ruch.

Marcinko (38) was second on the team in runs scored, followed by Grant Powell (34). Miller had 28 RBI and Tiernan produced 25.

Other stolen base leaders were Marcinko (19), Powell (18) and Miller (13).

Tiernan (11-0) was the pitching ace, registering 81 strikeouts in 67 innings. He yielded just 46 hits and walked only 13 batters while compiling an earned run average of 0.42.

Other team pitching leaders were Hobick (6-2 record, 1.88 ERA) and Alec Harrison (4-2 record). Powell had an ERA of 1.59 for 17 ⅔ innings.

Hobick fanned 69 batters in 48 ⅓ innings. Harrison registered 44 strikeouts in 42 ⅔ innings.

Tiernan was the workhorse, appearing in 15 games as a pitcher. Following him were Harrison with 12 appearances, Hobick with 11 and Powell with nine.

Oakwood was 11-0 in Vermilion Valley Conference contests.