By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
SUAMICO — Theo Zeidler pitched a no-hitter, as the Bay Port baseball team avenged its only loss of the season by defeating Ashwaubenon 14-1 June 3 in Fox River Classic Conference (FRCC) action at Bay Port High School.
“The last couple of weeks we’ve been hyping it up on social media,” Zeidler said. “The students and parents came out to support the game. I was focused and driven from the start.”
After a quick three and out by the Jaguars, the Pirates opened the floodgates in the bottom half of the first inning.
Jacob Kleeman opened with a ground-rule double, which bounced over the left-field wall.
Carl Cano then connected on a single to center.
A groundout sent Kleeman home to give Bay Port (17-1 overall, 14-1 FRCC) a 1-0 lead.
Back-to-back doubles by Logan VanLaanen and Eli Frank put two more runs on the board for the Pirates.
Later in the inning, after starting Jaguars’ pitcher Eli Zollar walked two batters and hit another, Frank came across the plate to make it 4-0.
With the bases again loaded, Kleeman stepped up for his second at-bat of the inning and laced a triple to center, scoring three more runs for a 7-0 advantage.
“We hit the ball right from the start,” Harvey Knutson, Bay Port head coach, said. “Our guys were cranked up for this game.”
Zeidler struck out all three batters he faced in the top of the second.
In the bottom half of the inning, with two runners on, James Bornick ripped a three-run, 345-foot home run over the center-field wall to swell the margin to 10-0.
“I think it was James' fifth home run of the season,” Knutson said. “He has a nice swing and prefers to hit the long ball.”
Zollar gave way to reliever Max Huguet, who surrendered an additional run to end the inning.
With the game in hand, the Pirates had one more big moment.
In the bottom of the fourth, Cano belted a 350-foot, three-run blast for Bay Port's last runs of the game.
“I don’t know if there's a hotter hitter around than Carl right now,” Knutson said. “Everything (he's hit) the past three weeks has been a liner or a laser. He’s on fire and helped us achieve the success we’ve had so far this season.”
The Jaguars (11-5, 10-4) added a run down the stretch on an error to close the scoring.
Zeidler kept his no-hitter intact by retiring Matt Schuch on a pop-out to end the game.
“We have a week left,” Knutson said. “Our message hasn’t changed at all. It's to compete for a state championship. Everything along the way is a bonus.”
Box score:
Ashwaubenon: 000 01 — 1
Bay Port: 740 3 — 14