Wildcats Move Above .500 with Baseball Victory

The University School baseball team defeated Living Word Lutheran 12-3 in a Midwest Conference contest on a perfect afternoon for baseball at USM Tuesday.

USM senior Billy Lawton kept the Timberwolves scoreless through five innings, thereby allowing his teammates to take a solid lead.  Lawton allowed only one hit and struck out nine during his stint. In his last outing on April 30th, Lawton pitched a no-hitter. The win, USM’s seventh in their last eight games gave the Wildcats a winning record.

Senior captain Nishad Agrawal commented on the Wildcats’ success in the game, “It was a hard fought game. We put the ball in play and took care of business. It feels good to be back over five hundred.”

Head coach Tim Bartz elaborated. “It’s great to have a winning record.  This team is really coming together. Because of rainouts in our first three weeks, we have played fifteen games in the last seventeen days.  We’ve played a lot of baseball, and we’ve seen a lot of things.  The experience has helped our guys get into a groove.  Our hitting is very good right now.  So is our defense.  We had no errors and two double plays today: a nice 1-3-5 DP in the fourth, and a good 4-6-3 DP to get us out of trouble in the seventh.  We now have had eight double plays in our last six games.  We have also tested our pitchers.  We have had fourteen different guys throw so far this season.  That’s a lot too, but none have overreached or burned out.  We now will begin to taper back.  By the time the playoffs come around in three weeks, our guys will be fresh.  More importantly, they will be ready.” 

The Wildcats jumped ahead with three runs in their first at bats.  Jack Wells led off the bottom of the first with a triple to deep right center.  Joey Judge followed with a single up the middle to score Wells.  Judge stole second, went to third on a passed ball.  Duncan brown then walked and soon stole second.  Lawton singled to drive in Judge and advance Brown to third.  Billy Miller then hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Brown.

After conceding a walk, Lawton struck out the side in the top of the second.

The Wildcats clawed out two more runs in the second. With one out, Wells singled and quickly stole second and third.  Judge hit an infield single to score Wells. Judge made it to third with steals.  He scored USM’s fifth run when Brown singled.

In the bottom of the third, Austin Heun walked with two out.  Wells singled.  Heun went to third and Wells took second on the throw.  Brown singled to drive in Heun and Wells. 

USM added two more in the bottom of the fifth.  Judge led off and was hit by a pitch. With one out Lawton doubled, scoring Judge.  Steven Swanson went in as a courtesy runner for Lawton. Miller reached on an error and Nishad Agrawal walked to load the bases.  Greg Trinkl then walked to force in a run and give the Wildcats a 9-0 lead.

The Timberwolves scored three runs in the top of the sixth, but USM answered with three in the bottom of the inning. Wells led off with a walk.  Judge then tripled to deep center.  Brown then doubled.  Tripp Doheny advanced Brown with a ground out and Will Rosean’s sacrifice bunt scored Brown with USM’s twelfth and final run.

Greg Trinkl pitched a solid inning in the top of the seventh to secure the nine run victory for USM.

USM is now 8-7 and 7-4 in the conference.  The Wildcats travel to Living Word Lutheran in Jackson on Thursday for a return match against the Timberwolves.  The game will begin at 4:30 p.m.

Score by Innings

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Final

LWL

0

0

0

0

0

3

0

 3

USM

3

2

2

0

2

3

X

12

USM Batting leaders:

Joey Judge: AB, 3; Runs, 4; H, 3; RBIs, 3; BB, 1; SO, 0; TP, 1;

Jack Wells: AB, 4; Runs, 4; H, 3; RBIs, 0; BB, 1; SO, 0; TP, 1;

Duncan Brown: AB, 4; Runs, 2; H, 3; RBIs, 4; BB, 1; SO, 0; 2B, 1;

Billy Lawton: AB, 3; Runs, 0; H, 2; RBIs, 2; BB, 1; SO, 1; 2B, 1.

USM Pitching:

Billy Lawton: IP, 5.0; H, 1; R, 0; ER, 0; BB 4; K, 9; Win

John Schwieters: IP, 0.0; H, 0; R, 2; ER, 2; BB 1; K, 0;

Will Rosean: IP, 1.0; H, 3; R, 1; ER, 1; BB 3; K, 0;

Greg Trinkl: IP, 1.0; H, 0; R, 0; ER, 0; BB 0; K, 1.