By DONN ADAMSON
Daily Journal Sports Editor

Published: Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Updated: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 10:36 AM CDT

BELLEVILLE — Errors, Errors, Errors. The Mineral Area College Cardinals committed four of them in their game against Southwest Illinois and even though offensively MAC made up for them, the momentum their errors caused gave the Blue Storm the upper hand to claim a 15-7 win.

“Offensively we did fine,” said MAC head coach Jim Gerwitz, “but our defense let us down today.”

Both teams actually hit the ball well as both teams utilized five pitchers each over the nine innings.

The Cardinals committed three of their miscues in the first three innings spotting the Blue Storm six unearned runs to go with the four they earned. SW Illinois did not commit an error.

SW Illinois roughed up starting pitcher Logan Lawson in the first inning with three hits for three runs, only two earned, but help came in a play that gunned down a fourth run at the plate. Fielding a ball in left, Tyler Beers made a perfect throw to the cut-off man Aaron Blunt for the relay home to catcher Jimmy Thompson for the tag.

Lawson sailed through the second with three fly balls, but the third inning was the Cardinals undoing and would send Lawson to the bench.

The Cardinals started the game hitting well. Bobby Tatum led off the first inning for MAC with a double and after Korey Domenick moved him to third on a bunt, Tatum scored on a grounder to first. The Cardinals tied the game at 3-3 with four straight singles in the second with Tatum and Domenick both driving in a run.

A double by Zack Getsee and a single by Andy Kuehn gave the Blue Storm the lead again. Two MAC errors over the next four at-bats left the gate open as SW Illinois stormed inside for five more unearned runs.

Joe Huber cleaned the bases with a two-out triple, and Josh Schaefer, Marcus Hustedde and Getsee strung together three singles to chase Lawson with Seth Veit finally recording the third out on a ground ball to third.

Shawn Spainhoward struck out two of the first four Cardinals he faced in the fourth, but Mineral Area got to him in the fifth inning. Blunt led off with a double, and singles by Richie Stanley, Clint Cashen and Dustin Hunter gave the Cardinals three more runs. Cashen scored again in the seventh with a single, a stolen base and an RBI single by Tatum.

Beers took the mound in the fifth with the score 11-6, and he made his way through the Blue Storm line-up until the seventh inning when John Pilackas tied into one of Beers’ pitches for the only home run of the game.

The Cardinals used up two more pitchers in the bottom of the eighth as the Blue Storm tacked on three more runs to their side of the scoreboard.

Mineral Area (4-13) will travel to Kansas City to play four games over this Friday and Saturday at Maplewoods College

Mineral Area  120 030 100 - 7  10  4

SW Illinois  30(10) 100 13x - 15  16  0

Mineral Area —

Pitching: LP- Lawson 2 2/3i 10r (4er) 10h 2k 3bb, Veit 1 1/3i 1r 2h 1k 1hb, Beer 3i 1r 1h 1k 2bb, Hartsgrove 2/3i 3r 4h 1k 2bb, Davolt 1/3i 0r 0h 1k 0bb.

Hitting: Tatum 3-5, Domenick 1-4, Penny 1-1, Blunt 2-4, Stanley 1-3, Cashen 2-3.  2b- Blunt 2, Penny, Tatum.

SW Illinois —

Pitching: WP- Spainhoward 3i 3r 4h 4k 1bb 1hb, Burris 3i 3r 6h 4k 2bb, Onstott 1i 1r 2h 2k 0bb, Walter 1i 0r 1h 0k 1bb, Penny 1i 0r 0h 1k 0bb.

Hitting: Huber 3-5, Schaefer 1-3, Pilackas 2-3, Hustedde 4-6, Getsee 2-4, Kuehn 2-5, Phillips 2-5, Moore 1-2.  HR- Pilackas. 3b- Huber. 2b- Huber, Hustedde, Kuehn, Phillips.