When Drew Martinson reached his pitch limit Monday, that turned out to be a game-changer for Evanston’s baseball team in its season opener at Lane Tech.
The senior right-hander, hoping to win a spot in Evanston’s rotation after being limited to spot start duty as a junior, pitched four scoreless innings and struck out 8 before the Wildkit bullpen surrendered all 5 runs in a 5-1 defeat.
Martinson fanned the first four batters he faced and allowed only three singles and no walks in his mound stint. Reliever Charlie Bailey allowed four runs in the fifth and Matt Anderson was touched for another run in the sixth for the losers.
“I thought Drew was outstanding today,” said ETHS head coach Frank Consiglio. “We were dominant for four innings — and then we got dominated. As I told our guys, if we had won 5-1 or lost 5-1, we can’t read too much into it. We have a lot of work to do either way.
“Right now we’re only good with our first 11 or 12 players, and after that we’re inconsistent. We’re trying to figure out what other guys can help us. Today we wanted to keep Drew at about 40 pitches and see what we have for the back end of our bullpen. We have 9 games in 8 days (including a spring break trip to Florida) and we need to throw these other guys out there and see who can compete.”
Bailey, a senior who pitched in relief last season, allowed a hit batter, a double and run-scoring singles by Lane’s Logan Williams and Brandon Novenario before finally putting out the fire in the fifth. Anderson, a junior, allowed a one-out triple by Erik Basler, who eventually scored on an infield out.
Three Lane pitchers limited the visitors to a total of six hits, all singles. The Kits broke through for their only run with two outs in the seventh when Joe Snapp ripped a single off the shortstop’s glove that scored Adam Geibel, who had walked leading off the inning.
Ben Wilson went 2-for-4 for Evanston, which plays its home opener Tuesday versus Oak Park-River Forest.
Dennis Mahoney is sports information director for ETHS.
In other ETHS sports news, the girls varsity soccer team defeated Von Steuben 6-0 Monday.
Caitlyn Dalton scored three goals for the Kits and Hadley Bushala, Keara Kerr and Kira Favakeh each added one.