Monday’s Community R-6 baseball home opener was cold, but Kyler Swaim was on fire.
The senior no-hit Wellsville-Middletown in an 11-1 five-inning victory as he also struck out 11, walked four …
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Monday’s Community R-6 baseball home opener was cold, but Kyler Swaim was on fire.
The senior no-hit Wellsville-Middletown in an 11-1 five-inning victory as he also struck out 11, walked four and allowed one unearned run. The Trojans walked 10 times and were hit by five pitches.
“The curveball,” Swaim said when asked what worked so well for him. “Mixing the curveball in definitely helped a lot. It was throwing their eyes off.”
Swaim’s performance happened three days after fellow senior Cooper Rohan tossed seven innings with nine strikeouts and two hits in a 3-1 victory at New Haven. Against another district opponent on Monday, Swaim said his confidence is there this season because this is his fourth year and he is relied on for his leadership.
It was easy for the Trojans to follow after Swaim was able to drop his curveball into the strike zone to freeze Wellsville hitters for strike three. He said he has worked his curveball over the years, but this version seems to be the one to add to his offspeed offerings.
“I’ve been in and out on how to hold a curveball,” Swaim said. “I finally found one that works for me. I’m working on a changeup, and that’s going well. As a lefty, it goes away from most righty batters so it might come in handy.”
Head coach Chris Ellersieck said Swaim was “amazing,” and that is a result of how good he was early in counts. When Swaim works ahead of hitters, Ellersieck said Swaim’s good curveball is even better.
“I liked his pace tonight,” Ellersieck said. “I really liked how he was really going after hitters and trying to throw first pitch strikes.”
Wellsville scored its only run after a dropped third strike in the fourth inning, where Swaim also walked some hitters. Community ended the inning without allowing any more damage.
The Trojans didn’t have its full roster as catcher Lane Carter was at a FFA event and center fielder Matthew Utterback was at quiz bowl. Regardless, they posted crooked numbers in the second, fourth and fifth innings. Nik Crider went 2-for-2 with two RBIs, Connor Maxwell and Houston Hogan each had two RBIs, and Swaim — who was intentionally walked for the second straight game — helped his cause with a two-RBI single in the second inning.
“We hit the ball and scored runs,” Ellersieck said. “It wasn’t that every run that we scored was walked in. I definitely think we put the bat on the ball and put the ball in play, which makes high school kids make decisions.”
Ellersieck said Community needs to focus on being more disciplined at the plate and on the basepaths as there were a few baserunning miscues against Wellsville. He said it doesn’t get any easier starting this week with a game at Clopton that happened on Tuesday and then another home district matchup against Marion County (0-1) at 5 p.m. today.
The Trojans have played two district games and have two district victories this early in the season.
“It felt good,” Swaim said about having two district wins in two games. “I’m excited to see where (today against Marion County) goes.”
Friday’s win at New Haven was scoreless through four innings until a three-run fifth inning. On top of his stellar day on the mound, Rohan had a RBI single to start the scoring, and Crider and Swaim also had RBIs. Rohan finished 2-for-4, and Kaiden Erdel was 2-for-3.
