Baseball: Bailey Thibeault, Avon Lake take down Midview in season opener

This story has been edited to reflect the following photo caption correction: Midview's Benjamin Szczepanski tagged out Avon Lake's Jacob Perry at second base. AVON LAKE — Bailey Thibeault wanted to finish what he started. The Avon Lake junior pitcher could have easily called it a night with his team working with a double-digit advantage in the fifth inning in its Southwestern Conference game against Midview on Monday. Instead, Thibeault came back out for the fifth and despite giving up a solo home run to Kaiden Vogelpohl, got the complete game by striking out seven in a 14-3 win over the Middies. "We had good competition today, so I had to bear down and play really well," Thibeault said. "It felt good being outside with my boys. I was dealing and getting ready for the rest of the season." Although the game was played at Avon Lake, Midview was the home team as its field is still not ready. For the first two innings, Thibeault and junior Luke Jockel were engaged in a scoreless duel, but Avon Lake (1-0) got its bats in gear. The Shoremen pounded out three hits in the inning and were aided by two walks and an error, as they scored four runs. The big hit in the inning came off the bat Alex Soloff, who tripled off the fence in right field to score Josh Bobrowski. "It feels so good to start the season off on the right foot," Soloff said. "This team has energy and we love hitting. We're going to go out every day and compete, and that's what we did today. "I was down two strikes in the third inning. I battled back and got a fastball middle-in and I just hit the barrel." Avon Lake scored four times in the fourth inning. Soloff and Bobrowsk had RBI singles and Chase Cartwright added his second double in as many innings, as the Shoremen doubled their advantage. "I'm happy for the guys," Avon Lake coach Kevin Collins said. "They were excited to get out here and show what they can do, and in all aspects of the game I thought we had a pretty good showing today. "Today, you saw the Bailey we've kinda seen coming for about a year now. He's gotten bigger and stronger and really worked on his game. He knows he has the ability and he showed that today, but I think he'd be the first to tell you he still has room to grow." The Middies (0-1) got on the board in the fourth inning thanks to a Daniel Melendez single. After Vogelpohl's first career home run in the fifth, Midview added one more on a Cole Lowrie RBI grounder that scored Kellen DeSimone. "There was a little bit of nervousness from our guys," Midview coach Ryan Feierabend said. "We don't make excuses, but it was our third time on a field. When you've been in a gymnasium or a football field, it's just different." Midview had Thibeault on the ropes in the third and fourth with the bases loaded, but only scored once. "We just have to try to do the little things. We don't have to go for the big base hit or the home run," Feierabend said. "We've just got to clean up the little things and not allow as many walks and errors." Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chronicle.com.