Ohio's Hawks handle Indiana, 12-2
In a perfect world, Hiland Hawk's coach Mike Yoder would have loved to see his fifth and sixth pitchers in the 2010 Little League Senior Division Regional competition in Missouri throw tons of strikes and get by Indiana.Yoder's wish came true when Brandon Wengerd and Caleb Schlabach gave the Hawks five excellent innings in Ohio's 12-2 win over the Fort Wayne, Ind., team, thus saving his pitching for the second game of the day on a sweltering Monday, August 9, that saw temperatures in the high 90s and the heat index situated at 115.
"Wow, was that heat brutal," said Yoder, of the contest in which ice cold towels, a giant fan and plenty of liquids were a must. "I saw the opportunity to end that game in five innings (there is a 10-run rule) and I was going to try to do anything possible to end it and get us out of there."
One way to do that is to throw strikes, which is exactly what the pair of Hawks pitchers did. Wengerd (three innings) only struck out one batter, as did Schlabach, but neither pitcher gave up a walk.
"I just wanted to pound the strike zone and let our defense make plays," said Wengerd. "You just try to forget about how hot it is when you're out there."
"It didn't take long to get warmed up, that's for sure," added Schlabach with a laugh. "I just tried to get a lot of water between innings and cool off with a towel. The other team had to play in it too, so we just had to go do our jobs."
Yoder said that with the stellar defense behind their pitching, the theme for the week will be to throw strikes and make teams put the ball in play.
"We'll make plays," said Yoder. "I thought (catcher) Bryce Mast did an exceptional job behind the plate, especially considering how hot it was."
Offensively, the Hawks got going in the second inning. Down 2-0, Wengerd began the inning with a double, and scored when Sheldon Mullet rifled a double down the third base line. After Mast and Ryan Troyer walked, Grant Troyer drove a base hit to right to plate a pair for a 3-2 Hiland lead. After going quietly in the third, Hiland exploded for five in the fourth. Schlabach led off with a walk, and was sacrificed to second. Mast drew another walk and Troyer hit an infield single to load the bases. Troyer then hit a sacrifice fly and Luke Burch followed with a two-RBI triple to make it 6-2. Three consecutive walks and a passed ball resulted in an 8-2 advantage. The Hawks closed the game out in the fifth. Schlabach again got the inning started with a single, and Mullet was hit by a pitch. After both moved up on a wild pitch, Troyer singled them in to make it 10-2. Richie Mast singled, Brad Schlabach was walked and Caleb Miller hit a sharp grounder to short that was thrown away for the game-winner.
"We're doing exactly what we had hoped to do coming in here, which was to get good pitching and play defense," said Yoder. "I was a little concerned early when we got down in this heat, but we kept putting the pressure on them, and our pitchers kept them off the bases."