TURNER – Chad Schrepper swung at the third pitch he saw from Mark Rogers and hit it off the 350 sign in left-center field, the deepest part of the ballpark.

Schrepper would later score the first run of the year against the Mt. Ararat phenom. That’s the good news for Leavitt. The bad news is that the Hornets would put three more balls in play the rest of the day against Rogers which, collectively, did not travel the same distance as Schrepper’s shot.

Rogers, who is either bound for the University of Miami or (more likely) will be scooped up early in this June’s Major League Baseball draft, struck out 12 of the next 15 batters he faced after Schrepper’s leadoff double and didn’t allow another hit. The Eagles’ offense took care of the rest, pummeling Leavitt in a 13-1 regular season finale that was cut short after five innings due to the mercy rule.

Whether the senior right-hander did enough to impress the 10 scouts in attendance Friday is anyone’s guess, but it was more than enough to leave the Hornets in awe.

“When he throws his fastball, you can’t see it and adjust. You’ve got to pick your foot up and you see the ball and you swing. You have no reaction time,” said Leavitt senior Dustin Gilbert, who was one of the few Hornets to make contact against Rogers.

“And when he throws his curveball, you’ve just got to try to put your bat on it.”

Rogers hung an 0-2 curveball to Schrepper, who stroked it to left-center and drew a standing ovation from the Leavitt partisans among the 300 or so in attendance.

“You’ve got to wait for a pitch that you get a really good look at and just try to get a part of the bat on the ball,” Schrepper said. “He’s going to provide the power.”

“It was a stupid pitch,” Rogers said with a smile. “He’s a good hitter. That’s one of those pitches you want to have back.”

He didn’t want to take too many back after that, though. Of Rogers’ 68 pitches, 47 were strikes.

Schrepper moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a passed ball. Rogers retired 15 of the next 16 batters in the game, with only a walk to Schrepper in the third breaking his string. Only Gilbert (ground out to third) and Alex Cutter (ground outs to second and short) put the ball in play against him the rest of the way.

“I thought he was fine. He was hitting his spots fairly well except hanging that curveball,” said Craig Rogers, Mark’s father and Mt. Ararat’s coach. “I think he only made one mistake.”

The Eagles (14-1) seemed to jump on every mistake by Leavitt (7-9) pitching while plating three in the first, eight in the third and two more in the fifth. Jim Ouellette led their 11-hit attack by going 3-for-4, with two runs and two RBIs. Andy Cantrell collected two hits and drove in a pair. Rogers had one hit in three official plate appearances but scored three runs.

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