Marion’s win streak reaches 10 before West Delaware earns a split

MARION - Won a game yesterday, so win one today, and that's two in a row. Win another one tomorrow, and that's called a winning streak.

Ah, baseball parlance.

You've got to wonder what it's called when you won yesterday, the day before that, the day before that, the day before that. Let's just say impressive.

That's what the Marion Indians have been of late. Class 3A's fifth-ranked prep baseball team continued its streaking ways Thursday night, beating West Delaware in the first game of a Wamac Conference doubleheader, 6-2.

That was 10 Ws in a row for the Indians. West Delaware came back to take the nightcap, 6-5.

Still, Marion has won 16 of 18, and you can't get much better than that.

'We knew coming in that we had a pretty good nucleus of kids, so it's really not surprising,” said Marion Coach Steve Fish. 'A lot of these guys have started since their sophomore year They've had an opportunity to kind of get comfortable and play a couple of years already. So we knew we could have a special year, or a chance for a special year. And they've done that.”

Parker Ridge made only his second pitching start of the season in the opener and threw a complete game, shutting out West Delaware after the first inning. Marion came into this twinbill leading 3A with a team earned run average of 1.39.

Baylor Fish, the coach's son, had three hits and scored four times, despite playing on a bad knee (meniscus tear) that will require surgery after the season.

'It's fine, kind of comes and goes,” he said. 'There are certain times when it'll pop ... But it's manageable. I wasn't going to miss the rest of the season. Nope. No thanks.”

Marion (17-5) scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning of the second game for a 4-2 lead. But West Delaware (12-12) scored four times in the fourth for a lead it never relinquished. Hawks junior Dunston Werner really settled down after the first inning to improve his record to 3-0.

'They were really hitting the fastball,” Werner said. 'I left it over the middle way too much. After I settled in, I went outside low and away a lot. Mixed the curveball, tried to get ahead in the count early. They're really good. They pull a lot of stuff. I had to work away and keep them off balance.”

Coach Fish lamented the play of his team in several areas. There were a couple of errors, which will happen, but also several mental mistakes that can't happen as we head into the second half of the season.

Things like a botched rundown, which cost Marion at least one run. Things like runners getting picked off base, which happened a couple of times.

'The problem is with some of these guys, we get away with some of these mistakes against some lesser teams. West Delaware is a good team,” Fish said. 'It's like I just told them, some of the coaches that I grew up with and played for would be rolling over watching the way they play sometimes in not taking what the game gives you. They try to do too much sometimes, trying to make that big play by trying to throw here or trying to get a bigger lead. You can't do that. Take what the game gives you.”

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