Ziomek leads Amherst to easy victory

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courtesy of john moran

Amherst's Kevin Ziomek winds up against Agawam Tuesday. Ziomek only gave up one hit to lead to the Hurricanes to a 10-0 win.

AGAWAM - As soon as Kevin Ziomek arrived in the bullpen on Monday, all eyes were on the Amherst Regional junior.

Ziomek had thrown only one pitch, but most of the players from Agawam were watching closely. Scouts from Duke University, St. John's University, Harvard University and the Cincinnati Reds were also watching.

If Ziomek noticed all the attention, he didn't flinch. The southpaw allowed one hit as the Hurricanes defeated Agawam 10-0 in the Valley League opener for both teams.

In Ziomek's last outing on April 17, he no-hit Chicopee.

Agawam's "a good team and I knew I had to locate the fastball early," Ziomek said. "I tried to get it in there in the beginning and as I worked through the game I worked in the off-speed (pitches). The change-up was working well."

Ziomek is about as poised as one can be despite all the attention. He entered the season rated as one of the top prospects in New England and he didn't do anything against Agawam to hurt that status.

Ziomek threw 88 pitches over six innings. He struck out 10 (five looking), walked two and allowed only a single in the first inning as he improved to 3-1 for the Hurricanes (5-3, 1-0).

For the season Ziomek has struck out 49 in 26 innings and allowed six hits. With Monday's effort, Ziomek lowered his earned run average to 0.81.

"He was able to keep them from getting in a groove," Amherst coach Greg Vouros said. "He mixed up the pitches and showed other pitches early."

The only blemish Monday, albeit a very small one, was that Ziomek fell behind 1-0 to 12 of the 21 batters he faced. But he fell behind 2-0 just once and that count went to 3-0. In that one instance, Ziomek came back with a change-up, fastball, fastball for the strikeout.

Ziomek faced a full count three times.

"Mentally you come in knowing they are an aggressive team so you have to try to get ahead early," Ziomek said. "Once in a while I wouldn't do that. I had to come back and I did. (Catcher) Steffen Herter helped me out along the way."

Ziomek's teammates were quick to supply him with run support. Matt Musante led off the second inning with a single and Derek Osborne followed with a single. David Marx, the No. 8 hitter, then crushed a 3-1 fastball to deep center field to score both runs. Herter (2-for-4) followed with an RBI double to left-center for a 3-0 lead.

"We've had a lot of big hits from low in the order," Marx said. "Once we get started, our momentum starts everything. It sparked (the offense). Everybody started hitting."

Dean Bonneau (4-for-4, two runs) kept the attack going with an RBI single. Evan Hazelett (3-for-5, two RBIs) then reached on a fielder's choice and Sean Cunningham followed a fly ball by Ziomek with a walk. With runners at first and second, Fred Shepard crushed a two-run triple to left to cap the six-run inning.

"We've had confidence in the bottom of the order all year," Ziomek said. "It helps us out a ton to have guys contributing all the way through."

Ziomek didn't get comfortable until the third inning. The Amherst bus was late, so Ziomek's warm-up time was cut short.

He threw 17 pitches in the first inning when Matt Lemieux had the lone hit, a hard single past Ziomek's feet and into center, for the Brownies (6-4, 0-1).

Ziomek then came back and threw 18 pitches in the second, 10 in the third and 12 in the fourth when he struck out the side.

Luke DeRoy pitched the seventh for Amherst and allowed one walk.

Ziomek's next scheduled start is against Holyoke at home on May 5.

Mike Moran can be reached at mmoran@gazettenet.com.