SHEFFIELD — Elyria Catholic finds itself on a little roll thanks to a couple of unexpected but welcome pitching performances Saturday.
Sophomore lefty Andrew Kubuski and freshman right-hander Scott Lamoreaux each picked up their first varsity pitching wins as the Panthers swept Brookside 4-1 and 5-3 in a non-conference doubleheader at Volunteer Field.
The sweep gave EC a four-game winning streak.
The Panthers are 7-4 heading into Monday’s important North Coast League challenge from Villa Angela-St. Joseph. Brookside fell to 3-5 overall.
“Very pleased,” said veteran EC coach Tom Kubuski, father of Andrew. “We need a one-day break. We’re tired right now. We’ve played six games in five days.
“I’m happy we got a complete game from Andrew in game one and we’re really pleased we almost got a complete game out of Scott.
“We brought a couple guys up (to the varsity) because we were out (of arms).”
Lamoreaux almost didn’t make it out of the first inning of the nightcap.
He hit Brookside leadoff hitter Jared Ramirez, then walked Carl Fitzer. With one out, Zach Upton ripped a double to the fence in left-center that drove in both runners.
But Lamoreaux settled in and didn’t give up another run until the Cardinals rallied for one in the bottom of the seventh.
“We told him to just relax out there,” Tom Kubuski said. “Try to throw strikes and we’ll take care of it behind you. We didn’t want walks. You can’t defend that.”
Meanwhile, EC scored a single run in the fourth and took the lead with three more in the fifth.
In the fourth, Joe Fitch singled and eventually scored on a balk for the first Panther run.
In the fifth, Drew Spinney, Mike Norton and Andrew Kubuski singled to produce the first run. EC scored the next two on ground-ball outs that the Cardinals couldn’t quite turn into a double plays.
In the first game, the Panthers took a 1-0 lead in the first inning and Brookside could never catch up as Andrew Kubuski scattered five hits.
The pitcher helped his own cause in the first-inning rally with a single that moved Norton to third. Fitch then drove home Norton. EC added single runs in the second, fourth and sixth innings. Norton was
3-for-4 in the first game and drove in two runs.
Brookside’s lone run came when Rocky Radeff drove home Upton in the fourth inning.
“Defense did a great job,” Andrew Kubuski said. “I just let (Brookside) hit it and the defense was right there. We made some great plays. Center field (Sebastian Vittardi) threw home — kid missed home but we were heads-up and ended up tagging him. I had a lot of defense behind me.”
Part of that defense was Andrew himself. He picked off two runners and kept the Cardinals off balance all day. His batterymate — Spinney — threw out one would-be base stealer.
“They were both winnable,” said Brookside coach Dan Zagorsky. “(EC) threw a lot of off-speed stuff at us and kept us off balance. We just didn’t adjust to the pitching.
“We left guys on base. We needed timely hitting but we just couldn’t get that one hit to get the runs across the table.”
Contact Tim Gebhardt at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

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