[04/23/01] BROOKHAVEN St. Aloysius’ bats took a nap in the middle of Game 2 of its first-round playoff series against West Lincoln Friday night, but woke up in time to complete a 10-0 rout and a 2-0 sweep of the Bears.

Charlie Amborn went 2-for-3 with a pair of singles and three RBIs, Alex Frisbee went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Clay Simmons added two hits, stole four bases and scored three runs to pace the Flashes (20-2), who rapped out 10 hits half of them in the first inning.

“We’re still not hitting the baseball sharply, consistently. We’re hitting a shot here or there, but we’re not stringing a lot of it together,” St. Al coach Joe Graves said. “But it’s good to get out of the first round. We haven’t done that in quite a while.”

The Flashes’ second straight five-inning, mercy-rule win sends them into a second-round matchup with Union (21-11), which knocked off Mize in two games.

That series will begin on Friday, but locations and times have not been set yet.

Ryan Hearn pitched out of jams in nearly every inning to earn the shutout. Hearn didn’t allow a hit after the second inning, but West Lincoln (11-11) had at least two runners on base in all but the fifth, when Hearn was bailed out by a spectacular catch by center fielder Blake Warnock.

“I don’t know what was wrong with me today. But I got the victory, my first playoff win,” Hearn said. “I just told myself before the game that they weren’t going to get any runs, and they didn’t. I accomplished my goal.”

He did it with a big assist from Warnock.

With St. Al leading 10-0, West Lincoln first baseman Cody Wallace led off the fifth with a drive to deep center.

Warnock tracked the ball to the warning track and caught it just before he was whipsawed by the stomach-high chain-link fence.

He flipped head-over-heels over the fence, but hung onto the ball for the out, keeping the game from going at least one more inning.

“I couldn’t believe I actually caught that. Fortunately I caught it before I hit the fence,” said Warnock, who also scored two runs, stole two bases and had a two-run single in the fifth. “Luckily the fence was broken down right there, and it didn’t hurt too bad.”

The Flashes rolled to an early 4-0 lead by batting around in the first inning for the second straight game. St. Al collected five hits in the inning, including RBI singles by Amborn and Frisbee, and an RBI double by Aaron George.

West Lincoln pitcher Jamie Sisco handcuffed the Flashes for the next 2 2/3 innings. He retired nine of the next 10 hitters he faced, allowing only a leadoff walk to Simmons in the second inning.

Sisco took the loss, however, allowing 10 hits and five walks in five innings. He struck out two.

“Maybe we weren’t relaxed. I know I wasn’t relaxed. I was too worried,” Warnock said. “You’re just up there trying to get basehits like always.”

The Flashes’ bats finally came back to life in the top of the fourth. With two outs, Simmons singled to left, Warnock walked and Amborn followed with a two-run single to left-center to make it 6-0.

St. Al added four more runs in the fifth thanks to three West Lincoln errors, Warnock’s two-run single and another RBI single by Frisbee.

“It feels good that we don’t have to play three games,” said Hearn, who allowed four hits all singles and three walks, and struck out two. “We can give our pitching a rest and get ready for the next series. We’re going to be facing a good team.”