ROCKTON—The weather forecast for Saturday morning in the Stateline area called for cloudy skies and gusty winds blowing up to nearly 40 miles per hour.
What meteorologists failed to predict was the appearance of a loud boom of thunder that came courtesy of Hononegah senior Drake Broege.
Broege’s two-run homer capped off a five-run second inning for the Indians and propelled them to a season-opening 5-1 win over North Boone.
“It felt great,” Broege said with a smile. “He threw the same pitch 3-1 as he did 3-2, a two-seam fastball inside, so I was ready for it. And I got my hands on it. Very fun, hopefully it keeps going.”
Hononegah chased Vikings’ starter Eli Lopez from the game after knocking him for five hits, four of those coming in the big second frame.
“They had Eli's pitches picked, we could hear it from the dugout,” North Boone head coach Andrew Baden said. “So, that's why I had called those mound visits and catcher RJ (Wolski) went out there twice that inning. As soon as we cleared that up, their bats quieted back down. But credit to them, they got us.”
Logan Edward was hit by a pitch to start the inning and stole second. Lopez got back-to-back strikeouts, but Bryce Ewing lasered a single into left field to tie it up at one. He moved to second on the throw and scored when Landen Seymour smacked a double into the left-field corner.
“Coach moved me up to three hitter for this game,” Broege said. “And it's great because every time I go up to bat I can get an RBI because Landen is always on base.”
Austin Dresser got Seymour home first on his single into center field before Broege sent one way past the left-field fence.
“Drake has gotten even stronger from last year, if that’s even possible,” Indians’ head coach Matt Simpson said. “He's got as much power as any kid that I've seen at the high-school level. You wouldn't think with a kid of his size and his strength, but he's really a complete hitter.
“What he did to that ball was something that we haven't seen here for a good many years. That was one of the longer home runs we've seen.”
Meanwhile, Nolan Mabie was keeping North Boone’s bats silent. After allowing a leadoff home run to Grady Condon, who crushed one over the left-field fence, the sophomore allowed just one more hit and a walk while racking up 12 strikeouts.
“Nolan got behind in the count (on that home run),” Simpson said. “And then I don't know that he was behind in the count, maybe two more batters the rest of the way. His fastball, curveball and slider, he was able to command all three of them.”
Logan Miller walked two to start the seventh in relief of Mabie, and Jakob DeLeo came in and walked another before he coaxed Quinn Danner into a pop out to seal the win.
The Indians finished with eight total hits, highlighted by Seymour, who went 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles.
The Vikings only managed two hits, but Matt Self finished with 4 1-3 innings from the mound and worked around a trio of hits and walks to strike out five and allow no runs.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence in that arm,” Baden said. “It really heated well because he was mixing it up. He had a little bit of extra velocity today. He played summer ball with a lot of those kids, so there was a little bit extra adrenaline for him to be throwing to some guys that he knows.”
HONONEGAH 5, NORTH BOONE 1
North Boone;100;000;0—;1;2;1
Hononegah;005;000;—;5;8;0
Leading hitters: NB, Condon 1x3, 1 RBI, 1 Run; Vermett 1x1. Hono, Seymour 3x3, 1 Run, 1 RBI; Broege 1x2, 1 Run, 1 RBI; Dresser 1x3, 1 Run, 1 RBI; Ewing 1x3, 1 RBI; Santis 1x2; Nelson 1x3.
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): NB, Lopez (L) 1.2-5-5-5-1-3, Self 4.1-3-0-0-3-5. Hono, Mabie 6.0-2-1-1-1-12, Miller 0.0-0-0-0-2-0, DeLeo 1.0-0-0-0-1-1.
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