Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Rod Holterman and Josh Mitchell pitched two superb games on Monday, allowing just one earned run in 14 innings against Warsaw and Churubusco. But exactly how did they do it?
Holterman and Mitchell faced 50 batters in the two games. The key was the first pitch to each batter. They threw a strike on the first pitch to 23 of the batters and another 10 batters put the ball in play on the opening pitch.
When falling behind 0-1, batters went 1-for-21 with a walk and a hit batter. When hitting the first pitch, batters went 1-for-8 with two sacrifices. That translates into a measly .069 batting average.
The 17 batters that Holterman and Mitchell threw a ball to on the first pitch fared better, however. They went a combined 3-for-14 with two walks and a hit batter. That comes out to a .214 batting average. Although it's still not great, it's an improvement over falling behind early.
Even more impressive was Holterman's and Mitchell's aggressiveness when smelling a strikeout. Eight times in the two games, Holterman and Mitchell got the count to 0-2. Seven times they picked up a strikeout along with one hit batter.
The two Wawasee pitchers had such great control that nobody on Churubusco's squad saw a count with three balls. Only six batters worked the count long enough to get two balls. In game one against Warsaw, Holterman threw at least three balls to only three batters. However, every one of those Warsaw hitters ended up walking.
"One of those three guys was a No. 9 batter," Holterman said. "You should never walk a No. 9 batter. I think I was trying to be too finesse, instead of just throwing the ball. I should have just relaxed like I did against the rest of the batters and just threw the ball."
Holterman picked up both wins with a seven-inning complete game against Warsaw and one inning of relief against Churubusco. However, it almost was not meant to be.
"When we got here, I started warming up with Mitchell down in the bullpen," Holterman said. "I didn't have it at the beginning. My arm was tight, and it took me longer to warm up this morning than it usually does. Finally it got loose, and it felt pretty good."
