Washington Evening Journal
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Panthers use RBI singles to drop Washington in sweep
If there were key words to describe Thursday evening's key Southeast Conference doubleheader between Mt. Pleasant and Washington, 'clutch hits', 'RBI single' and 'see-saw' may come to mind.
A little over a week since being swept at Washington (19-7 overall, 8-4 SEC), the Panthers (17-7 overall, 8-2 SEC) returned the favor Thursday, winning both games using all of those key words and taking the conference ...
Jessica Nelson
Sep. 30, 2018 10:47 pm
If there were key words to describe Thursday evening's key Southeast Conference doubleheader between Mt. Pleasant and Washington, 'clutch hits', 'RBI single' and 'see-saw' may come to mind.
A little over a week since being swept at Washington (19-7 overall, 8-4 SEC), the Panthers (17-7 overall, 8-2 SEC) returned the favor Thursday, winning both games using all of those key words and taking the conference lead in the process.
Conner Shull became the hero in game one's extra inning, 2-1 win, driving in Ryan Schenk on an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth, while Alex O'Donnell earned the hero title in game two with his two RBI single in the bottom of the seventh in the 9-8 win.
"Both games we had to score the one in the eighth [inning] and this one in the seventh [inning] to win it. The first game, not so much of a big deal because we were tied but this one, we were down," said Mt. Pleasant coach Brent Broeker. "A lot of clutch hits, the kids fought hard."
Mt. Pleasant struck first in game one, on an RBI single from Tanner Courtney in the first inning, scoring Joey Vaughn. The Panthers clung to the 1-0 lead until the sixth inning when Washington's Tanner Knupp scored on an error by Vaughn at shortstop, tying the game at one.
Washington stranded eight runners going into the eighth inning before Mt. Pleasant's Braden Shull struck out the last three Washington batters in order in the eighth inning. Shull amassed seven strikeouts with only one walk during 2 2/3 innings in game one, earning the win.
"The first game wasn't just a defensive struggle, we had opportunities early on to score some other runs and just didn't," said Washington coach Nathan Miller. "It's just two good teams playing against each other. It's a matter of capitalizing on the situation."
Josh Moore was tagged with the loss in game one, allowing two runs, both earned, on nine hits with five strikeouts and a walk.
Washington wasted no time in the second game, taking a 2-0 lead on a two-run home run by Brad Weatherman in the first inning. Jared Henry threw four shutout innings before giving way to Colin Steele in the fifth inning.
Then the see-sawing began.
Steele's only appearance on the mound would be the fifth inning as the Panthers roughed up Steele for seven runs on seven hits in the inning. Alex O'Donnell hit an RBI triple in the fifth, a foreshadowing of what was yet to happen, as the Panthers took a 7-4 lead.
The Demons regained the lead in the sixth, scoring four times, including on a two RBI single by Weatherman. With an 8-7 lead, Weatherman, who moved to the pitcher's mound in the sixth inning, was one out away from the win in the seventh before giving up O'Donnell's game winning hit.
The loss knocked Washington from the SEC lead, instead moving Mt. Pleasant into the number one spot.
"We're in a conference title race, you don't need any motivation with this match-up ? it's Mt. Pleasant/Washington. It doesn't matter if one team is 0-32 and the other team is 32-0, it's usually a very hard fought game," said Miller. "[They were] good baseball games tonight. We were just on the short end. It is what it is, tough two losses."
The see-saw ride was also felt in the Mt. Pleasant dugout during the second game, with Broeker giving credit to Washington for fighting back after Mt. Pleasant's fifth inning scoring burst.
"We were down 4-0 and that kid [Henry] was dominating us. We put six hits together in a row and all of a sudden we're up," said Broeker. "I thought we would have smooth sailing after that but they fought right back. He [Miller] has a good group of kids, they won't give up and obviously ours didn't give up either."
Weatherman was tagged with the loss in game two, allowing two earned runs on five hits with four walks in two innings. Mt. Pleasant's C. Shull improved to 6-0 with the game two win, allowing no runs or hits with one walk and two strikeouts during the seventh inning.
Mt. Pleasant travels to Waterloo tomorrow for a tournament while Washington is off until traveling to Pella on July 5 for a non-conference game.
BOX SCORE ? GAME 1
MT. PLEASANT 2, WASHINGTON 1 (8 INN.)
Washington ? 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 ? 1 5 1
Mt. Pleasant ? 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 ? 2 9 3
Winning Pitcher ? B. Shull; Losing Pitcher ? Moore
Lead Batters ? Washington-Jake Redlinger 2-4, Brian Roder 1-3, Weatherman 1-4, Jordan Geir 1-4; Mt. Pleasant ? B. Shull 2-3, Ryan Schenk 2-4, Tanner Courtney 1-3, O'Donnell 1-3, Ross Heitmeier 1-3, Korbin Taylor 1-3, C. Shull 1-2
2B ? J. Redlinger 1; B. Shull 1; 3B ? O'Donnell 1
GAME 2
MT. PLEASANT 9, WASHINGTON 8
Washington ? 2 0 0 0 2 4 0 ? 8 10 0
Mt. Pleasant ? 0 0 0 0 7 0 2 ? 9 12 1
Winning Pitcher ? C. Shull; Losing Pitcher ? Weatherman
Lead Batters ? Washington-J. Redlinger 2-4, Weatherman 2-4, Colton Covington 2-4, Anthony Ossman 2-5, Moore 1-4, Geir 1-4; Mt. Pleasant ? Courtney 3-4, O'Donnell 2-3, R. Shull 2-3, B. Shull 2-4, Henry Krieger-Coble 1-3, Taylor 1-3
2B ? Geir 1, Covington 1; Krieger-Coble 1, Taylor 1, Heitmeier 1; 3B ? O'Donnell 1; HR ? Weatherman 1, Redlinger 1