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Zebras held to 4 hits, fall to 2-3 in TRC
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
WABASH –- Tristin Hayslett pitched a four-hit shutout, and Logan Barley homered and drove in three runs to lead the Class 1A, No. 8 Southwood baseball team past Rochester 5-0 Wednesday.
Mason Yentes also went 3 for 3 with three runs scored for the Knights. Mo Lloyd and Joey Bland had two hits each.
Connor Rich and Alex Farr each had a hit and an RBI.
Southwood improved to 12-2 overall and 5-0 in the Three Rivers Conference.
Ethan Medina, Evan Elliott, Brock Beehler and Quin Stesiak each had singles for Rochester, who fell to 9-9, 2-3.
Rochester got a runner as far as third base once. That occurred in the second inning when Beehler singled and courtesy runner Colton Ferverda stole second and went to third on Kane Lutz’s grounder back to the pitcher. But Hayslett retired Jacob Seuferer on a trounder to short to retire the side.
Hayslett finished with five strikeouts.
“He was solid,” Rochester coach Cory Good said of Hayslett. “He threw strikes. That’s what we want our guys to do. He threw a good seven innings, but I thought we could have done a better job with our pitch selection. I felt like at times we were setting him up for success, getting ourselves down in the count, swinging at pitches that we didn’t need to be swinging at with one strike or less.
“He pitched well, not trying to take anything away from him. But there’s no reason we get four-hit shutout in my opinion.”
Southwood gave Hayslett the only run he needed in the first when Yentes reached on a bloop single and advanced to third when Rich reached on an error on a wild throw. Barley’s RBI grounder to short made it 1-0.
Barley cranked a two-run homer to right-center in the third off Beehler to make it 3-0.
Southwood had a stretch of four singles in five batters in the fourth. Rich’s RBI single made it 4-0, and when Farr drove in a run when he grounded into a force out, it was 5-0.
Medina and Aaron Huffman threw a scoreless inning of relief each.
Southwood won their eighth straight game. They had scored in double figures 10 times previously this season, including seven games in a row. Only once had they scored fewer than five runs in a game.
“I knew they were going to hit the ball around,” Good said. “Our pitchers threw well. I think we had one walk, and … that’s been a big issue this year. So I thought we pitched well. We pitched to contact. We made three errors that gave them three runs. … I thought our pitchers did well. They threw strikes. They competed. We just didn’t back them up real well today.”
Southwood coach Warren Dailey said Hayslett thrived on “effective wildness.” He also complimented Beehler and the rest of the Rochester staff.
“As a matter of fact, the kid they started, the Beehler kid, when he came out, I talked to him and told him he did a great job,” Dailey said. “He was over at third base. I don’t want to say this and hurt anyone else’s feelings, but the pitching that we saw today was better than we’ve seen in a while. So we were off-balance a little bit, and I think we weren’t prepared for it. And that’s my fault. I talked about preparing for a little more velocity, but I don’t think that we did it well enough.
“But their pitchers did a great job of getting in the zone and getting ahead of our hitters and getting them into a count that was an advantage for them and a disadvantage for us.”
Southwood 5, Rochester 0
Rochester 000 000 0 – 0 4 1
Southwood 102 200 X – 5 11 1
WP – Tristin Hayslett (7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K)
LP – Brock Beehler (4 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K)
2B – Mo LLoyd 2 (SW), Joey Bland (SW)
HR – Logan Barley (SW)
Rochester senior Brock Beehler pitches against Southwood Wednesday. The Zebras lost 5-0 to fall to 2-3 in the Three Rivers Conference. (photo provided by Paula Beehler)
Rochester senior second baseman Kane Lutz makes a diving stop and throws from his knees to rob Southwood’s Alex Farr in the first inning of Wednesday’s TRC game. Southwood, ranked No. 8 in Class 1A, won 5-0. (photo provided by Paula Beehler)
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