|
|||||||||||||
Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
Tigers outslug Wildcats 9-4
Scott Betterly did not have his best stuff last Friday.
He knew it, the Brentsville District coaches knew it and even Warren County knew it.
But with his team cruising in first place, “good-enough” proved to be good enough.
The Tigers came back from a 2-1 deficit in the first round of the Northwestern District playoffs to top Warren County 9-4. They capitalized on key mistakes offensively in the second inning while Betterly struck out seven Wildcats in four innings of work.
Second baseman Andrew Johnson tied up the game with an RBI single in the bottom of the second that brought in Brian McBride. James Kerns then came in on an infield error before a wild pitch to Chase Garrison scored Johnson.
Garrison would have brought the second baseman in anyway as he cranked a single to center field. But he brought in LeGrand instead as the catcher had moved up to third base on the wild pitch that scored Johnson.
“Well, the big thing of our season’s just been execution,” said Johnson. “When they make a mistake in the field, we make sure we execute, get that guy in.”
Before the Brentsville relief pitchers came on, Justin Weaver helped put the game out of reach with a solo home run that kicked up dirt behind the left field fence in the bottom of the fourth inning, extending the Tiger lead to 8-3.
Wildcat coach Vernon Mathews mentioned that if they “take away the one bad defensive inning” and added in some timely hits, the game would have been “a lot closer.”
Brentsville coach Brian Knight agreed, saying that if Betterly had not battled through some “tight situations, some situations where if they get a key base hit, it’s a whole different ball game.”
Betterly posted a less-than-stellar performance from the mound on Friday compared to his one-hit game against the Wildcats earlier this season. He walked six batters and gave up three hits while tossing 88 pitches this time, but his seven Ks coupled with some fine defensive work by his infield helped him escape a few jams.
His team down 1-0, Warren County outfielder Jonathan Nicholson drove in Kit Schindler and Connor Hutzell with the bases loaded in the top of the second to give the Wildcats an early lead.
But Brentsville stranded the remaining two runners on base, keeping their deficit to a mere one run.
“Clutching hitting earlier in the game is key because when you get those hits earlier in the game, you know even if they score after that, you’re going to be able to do the same thing you did in the first couple of innings,” said Betterly. “You have confidence that people know that we’re going to score runs and that they’re going to produce all the way through the game and not maybe think, ‘We can’t hit this kid,’ or stuff like that and try to come back at the end of the game.”
Betterly’s confidence in his catcher LeGrand also helped settle him down once the Tiger hitters gave him a workable lead.
“I’ve always loved him being my catcher,” stated Betterly. “You don’t have to worry about if you get in a certain count and you’ve got runners on base; you don’t have to worry about not throwing a certain pitch because he might not catch it.”
The team has a “very small amount of wild pitches” because of the three-year starting varsity catcher, Knight said.
According to assistant coach Mike Handley, who calls the pitches for Brentsville, the Brentsville pitching staff can throw whatever pitches they want to LeGrand because the ball most likely will not hit the backstop.
“Tyler’s like a little brother to me,” said Handley. “He and (I) are on the same page.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.