Van Buren topples Fairfield in season opener

KEOSAUQUA ? Van Buren already knew they had a few stars on its 2010 lineup, but in Tuesday?s season opener vs. Fairfield, another may have begun his emergence.

Court Garrett tamed the Fairfield offense striking out 11 in five innings to pick up the win on the mound as the Warriors rolled to an 8-3 victory vs. Fairfield.

Warrior ace Jory Heckenberg struck out six more Trojans in two innings of relief work and picked up right where he left off a season ago from the plate going 3-3 with a double and two runs batted in. Heckenberg got to Fairfield starter Willie Ghent early with a single that scored Leighton Schnedler to give his team a first-inning, no-out lead they would never surrender.

The Warriors added two more unearned runs in the bottom of the first to give Garrett a lead to settle in with. The junior allowed just four hits and didn?t walk a single batter in his five innings.

?He did a great job throwing strikes, and that?s one thing we wanted to see,? said Van Buren head coach Chad Scott. ?Court Garrett was one of the more dedicated players in the off-season, and it is really paying dividends.?

Heckenberg?s sac fly in the fourth gave the Warriors a 4-0 lead before the Fairfield bats finally got to Garrett. Jake Dunbar singled in Brent Buch before Brandon Veirs blasted a two-run homer to center field to bring the score to 4-3. Veirs finished the game 2-3 and also pitched 2.1 innings of relief.

?One of the best things to come out of tonight was to see Brandon Veirs back on the mound,? said Fairfield head coach Josh Allison. ?There was some bad luck with some errors behind them and there?s still room for improvement, but overall, I was pleased with how the pitchers threw the ball for this early in the season.?

Thanks to one of the Fairfield fielding errors, Van Buren answered back with two more runs in the bottom half of the fifth as Colin Weaver singled in Blake Scott and Nic Giberson drove in Austin Countryman.

Van Buren added two more scores in the sixth as four Trojan errors led to four unearned runs for the opportunistic Warriors.

?Hitting was one thing I was worried about coming in just because we haven?t had a lot of practice time in the cage, but I think the kids did a good job with putting the ball in play and making them get us out,? Scott said.

The loss drops Fairfield to 0-1 with a lineup that featured six first-time starters.

?We know that there will be a learning curve for the team early on,? said Allison. ?We have several younger players and several guys that didn?t see much varsity time last year that are stepping in, working hard, and learning how to perform at the varsity level.?

Next up for the Trojans will be a game vs. Williamsburg at home tonight while Van Buren will play Thursday.