Pitching, Defense Lift Triton Baseball Team To Sectional Title
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Mark [email protected]
Flenar also helped himself by picking a pair of Satellites off first base.
“Nate pitched one heck of a game; I’ll tell you that,” said Triton head coach Brad Hargrave. “He pitched really well; his locations were good, he was setting up batters well, knockin’ ‘em down. He did one heck of a job.
“He got a little tired there at the end, and it was a last-second decision (to bring in Pitney). We stalled right there for a second, trying to figure out what we were going to do. We made the switch, and it worked out nicely.”
Pitney worked a perfect seventh inning, striking out two to preserve the win.
South Central senior lefty Logan Lionberger pitched very well for the Satellites, allowing no hits through the first four innings and striking out 12 in the game.
“We’d been watching (South Central) this week, and when we didn’t see Lionberger last night, we knew we’d see him,” Hargrave said. “And he did a great job, he had us moving around and taking a lot of first-pitch strikes.”
The Trojans used a walk, an error and Grant Stichter’s RBI single, Triton’s first hit of the game, to scratch out its first run in the fourth. After one out in the fifth, Triton strung together a hit batsman and two opposite-field ground ball singles to plate the second run.
In both cases, Lionberger shut down the rallies with strikeouts, getting three in the fifth and two in the sixth.
Central came back to life with one out in the sixth. Charles Crawford walked and stole second, then Noah Eaton hit a grounder to Triton third baseman Gabriel McPherson. He wasn’t able to get a tag on Crawford coming over from second, and his throw to first was not in time to get Eaton.
Maxwell Sims then lined out to center, deep enough to score Crawford. Lionberger was then retired to end the inning on a nifty play by shortstop Cordale Keyser, who moved to his left, stumbled, then fired to first to get the Satellite pitcher by a step.
Flenar struck out three in the game, pitching to contact and counting on the Trojan defense.
“They really had my back, and they tell me that every time they come up and talk to me. ‘Nate, we have your back.’ And I believe it,” Flenar said. “I believe in them and they believe in me.”
Hargrave said playing a tough schedule played a role in preparing the Trojans for their postseason run.
“We played Bremen, Jimtown and New Prairie, Plymouth outside of our conference, and when we play those bigger schools, we hang with them,” he said. “Most of the games we won this year were in our conference, and I think that helped us out in the sectional.
“We knew it’d be low scoring, and we told them that it’d probably come down to a small-ball kind of play where you kind of have to (manufacture) runs. They did a great job. We kept on telling them ‘put pitching and hitting together, plus good defense, and once you put all those things together, then good things will come.’”
Now 9-16, Triton moves on to Saturday’s Caston Regional, where they will take on Fort Wayne Blackhawk at 1 p.m. The winner will take on either North
White or the yet-to-be-determined winner of the Washington Township Sectional. Morgan Township will take on the host school for that sectional championship today.
TRITON 2, S. CENTRAL 1
SC 000 001 0 – 1 1 3
T 000 110 x – 2 5 1
S. Central – Lionberger (L, 6IP, 5H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 12K)
Triton – Flenar (W, 6IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 3BB, 3K), Pitney (SV, 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 2K)
2B – McPherson (T)
Records: Triton 9-16, S. Central 11-12[[In-content Ad]]
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Flenar also helped himself by picking a pair of Satellites off first base.
“Nate pitched one heck of a game; I’ll tell you that,” said Triton head coach Brad Hargrave. “He pitched really well; his locations were good, he was setting up batters well, knockin’ ‘em down. He did one heck of a job.
“He got a little tired there at the end, and it was a last-second decision (to bring in Pitney). We stalled right there for a second, trying to figure out what we were going to do. We made the switch, and it worked out nicely.”
Pitney worked a perfect seventh inning, striking out two to preserve the win.
South Central senior lefty Logan Lionberger pitched very well for the Satellites, allowing no hits through the first four innings and striking out 12 in the game.
“We’d been watching (South Central) this week, and when we didn’t see Lionberger last night, we knew we’d see him,” Hargrave said. “And he did a great job, he had us moving around and taking a lot of first-pitch strikes.”
The Trojans used a walk, an error and Grant Stichter’s RBI single, Triton’s first hit of the game, to scratch out its first run in the fourth. After one out in the fifth, Triton strung together a hit batsman and two opposite-field ground ball singles to plate the second run.
In both cases, Lionberger shut down the rallies with strikeouts, getting three in the fifth and two in the sixth.
Central came back to life with one out in the sixth. Charles Crawford walked and stole second, then Noah Eaton hit a grounder to Triton third baseman Gabriel McPherson. He wasn’t able to get a tag on Crawford coming over from second, and his throw to first was not in time to get Eaton.
Maxwell Sims then lined out to center, deep enough to score Crawford. Lionberger was then retired to end the inning on a nifty play by shortstop Cordale Keyser, who moved to his left, stumbled, then fired to first to get the Satellite pitcher by a step.
Flenar struck out three in the game, pitching to contact and counting on the Trojan defense.
“They really had my back, and they tell me that every time they come up and talk to me. ‘Nate, we have your back.’ And I believe it,” Flenar said. “I believe in them and they believe in me.”
Hargrave said playing a tough schedule played a role in preparing the Trojans for their postseason run.
“We played Bremen, Jimtown and New Prairie, Plymouth outside of our conference, and when we play those bigger schools, we hang with them,” he said. “Most of the games we won this year were in our conference, and I think that helped us out in the sectional.
“We knew it’d be low scoring, and we told them that it’d probably come down to a small-ball kind of play where you kind of have to (manufacture) runs. They did a great job. We kept on telling them ‘put pitching and hitting together, plus good defense, and once you put all those things together, then good things will come.’”
Now 9-16, Triton moves on to Saturday’s Caston Regional, where they will take on Fort Wayne Blackhawk at 1 p.m. The winner will take on either North
White or the yet-to-be-determined winner of the Washington Township Sectional. Morgan Township will take on the host school for that sectional championship today.
TRITON 2, S. CENTRAL 1
SC 000 001 0 – 1 1 3
T 000 110 x – 2 5 1
S. Central – Lionberger (L, 6IP, 5H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 12K)
Triton – Flenar (W, 6IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 3BB, 3K), Pitney (SV, 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 2K)
2B – McPherson (T)
Records: Triton 9-16, S. Central 11-12[[In-content Ad]]
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