Van Buren swings and misses vs. Davis County

DONNELLSON ? The hard-hitting offenses of second-ranked Davis County and No. 8 Van Buren were combining to score nearly 20 runs per game entering Tuesday?s Class 2A district semifinal, but pitching stole the show.

And it was like Davis County?s Calvin Mathews ransacked, looted and plundered before leaving the country with it.

Mathews quieted a Van Buren lineup that boasted a .397 batting average entering Tuesday with just one hit allowed and an astounding 17 strikeouts to get his team a 3-0 victory and into Saturday?s district final vs. Albia in Fairfield. Albia advanced with a 4-0 win over Pekin Tuesday.

Mathews struck out the first 11 batters he saw and lowered his ERA to 0.79 on the year when all was said and done. With just one hit allowed, the sophomore quickly finished off the game just 90 minutes after it started.

?He was in the zone. He got in a rhythm and stayed in a rhythm,? said Mustang head coach Todd White.

Jory Heckenberg was the first Warrior to avoid a ?K? with a single that broke up the perfect game with two outs in the fourth inning.

?Calvin Matthews is a great pitcher. We all saw that tonight. When you have a pitcher come in with that much talent combined with the fact that he?s on, it?s going to be tough.? said Van Buren head coach Chad Scott, whose team wraps up a terrific year with a 22-4 record and third-straight SEISC south division title under its belt. ?We?ve been on the other side of things for a while, but now we certainly know what it feels like.?

Heckenberg was on the other end of the pitcher?s duel and went the distance for Van Buren allowing eight hits and three runs vs. the high-octane attack while striking out six. But Davis County did its damage in the bottom of the first as Josh Martsching opened the inning with a double followed by RBI singles from Coleton and Calvin Mathews to give Davis County an early 2-0 advantage.

From there, Heckenberg held Davis County scoreless across the next four innings before Zach Fligg drove in Caleb Rook for one more run in the bottom of the sixth.

?Jory struggled a little bit in the first inning, but he pitched a whale of a ball game,? Scott said. ?He used his defense well and holding them to three runs is quite an accomplishment.?

Heckenberg?s fourth-inning hit made him the lone baserunner on the night for Van Buren before Mathews sat down the junior ? a .551 hitter ? and senior Spencer Bartholomew ? a .426 hitter ? to make for a fitting end in the seventh.

Bartholomew is one of three seniors to graduate from the Warrior squad along with Tel Smith and Ethan Franklin.

?Those are three of the best seniors I can ask for. They have meant so much to the program, won three conference titles and certainly put Van Buren baseball back on the map,? Scott added. ?I couldn?t ask for a better group of leaders, and the bar is set pretty high for next year.?

Davis County and Albia will battle in the district final at Fairfield with a first pitch set for 7 p.m. Saturday.