Wildcats Win Pitching Duel, 1-0

Starting pitchers Lane Stanford of University School and Tyler Frohwirth of Brookfield Academy faced off in a pitching duel Friday in Brookfield.  In a game that was a shining diamond in the high rough of run scoring that is typical in high school baseball, the USM baseball team edged its Midwest Classic Conference North opponent 1-0.

"Lane was phenomenal," said USM's head coach, Tim Bartz.  I couldn't be happier with his performance. He didn't walk anybody. He just threw strikes." Collected, those strikes led to eight strikeouts for Stanford, who yielded only five hits in throwing the complete game shutout. Frohwirth's totals were just as good.  Like Stanford, Frohwirth did not walk a batter.  He struck out seven Wildcats, and allowed only two hits in six innings. Unlike Stanford, however, Frohwirth gave up a run.

USM scored that run in the top of the second on aggressive base running by Tommy Pennington.  Pennington led off the inning by hitting a ground ball to short and racing to first ahead of the throw, recording one of USM's hits as a result. Frohwirth got USM's next batter, Billy Lawton, to hit a tapper down the third base line.  BA's third baseman, Garrett McElligot, moved in, fielded it cleanly, and threw to first to get Lawton out.  Pennington ran hard to second, and seeing the third baseman way in on the infield grass, took off for third.  Pennington barely beat McElligot and the return throw to the base from first baseman Dom Ricci.  Safe at third, Pennington took a big lead. USM's next batter, Nathan Burke, hit a ground ball to Ricci.  Seeing Pennington racing home, Ricci threw to the plate.  The ball and the runner arrived simultaneously, but Pennington smartly slid away from the tag and was called safe at home.

USM's fielders helped Stanford earn the shutout. Center-fielder Josh Baker made a nice running catch in the first.  In the fourth and then again in the fifth catcher Duncan Brown threw out Blue Knights trying to steal second. In the sixth with a runner on first, Burke, USM's first baseman, fielded a grounder, touched first, then threw a strike to Pennington in time for the second baseman to apply a tag, completing the double play. In the seventh, Pennington dove to snag a hard ground ball heading to centerfield.  He jumped up and threw to Burke in time to retire the batter.

The win gave USM a firm grasp on the conference lead.  The Wildcats lead the league by two games over Dominican and by three games over BA. 

BA is now 10-3 and 5-3 in the conference.  Two of the Blue Knights' losses have been to USM, which remains undefeated thanks to Stanford’s pitching gem. Bartz, commented, “Lane gave us a huge win in the conference.”  USM is now 8-0 in the conference and 11-0 overall.  The Wildcats play another conference game at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, when St. John's Northwestern Military Academy pays a visit to USM.