Well-rounded victory

Well-rounded victory
Tornado have all facets of their game in sync in beating North Hills

BUTLER TWP — A pitcher throwing strikes, timely hitting and errorless fielding.
Butler brought all three of those elements to its ballpark Wednesday night and each played a role in the Golden Tornado's 10-3 baseball victory over North Hills in a mutual Section 1-AAAA opener.
Right-hander C.J. Miller surrendered 12 hits in a complete-game effort, but walked only one batter. He threw 101 pitches, 69 for strikes.
"We want our pitchers pitching to contact and C.J. does that," Butler coach Dave Florie said. "He's not overpowering, but he uses his defense and makes you earn your way on against him."
The Tornado produced 13 hits overall, 12 against Indians ace right-hander Jesse Bauer. Butler scored eight runs with two outs and an 0-2 count on the batter.
"Both teams hit the ball well all night," North Hills coach Nate Buttenfield said. "They got the timely hits and we didn't."
Butler's John Crummy delivered an RBI single to tie the game at two in the third inning. Crummy then was picked off first base and the Tornado's Bobby Swartwout had an 0-2 count on him with nobody on.
Swartwout drew a walk and Ryan Fennell singled to center. Roman Bargo hit a run-scoring double to right and Tyler Slepski followed with a two-run single to center.
North Hills appeared ready to answer in the fourth, when the Indians loaded the bases with one out. But No. 9 hitter Mark DeVita grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to kill the threat,
"That was the defensive play of the game," Miller said. "It protected the lead and kept the momentum on our side."
The score stayed at 5-2 into Butler's half of the sixth inning. An infield error, a Cody Herald single and a wild pitch prompted the Indians to walk Crummy intentionally to load the bases with one out.
Bauer, who is headed to La Roche College to pitch next year, struck out Swartwout and got ahead of Fennell 0-2.
Fennell then hit a high pop fly into foul territory near first base that the Indians failed to catch. Two pitches later, he grounded a two-run single into center field. Bargo followed with a two-run double to left and Bauer was lifted.
Butler's Cody Montgomery delivered a run-scoring single to left to complete the uprising.
"We preach two-strike hitting to these guys all the time," Florie said. "Eight runs after 0-2 counts — I'm going to remember that one."
Bargo paced Butler's attack with two doubles, a single and three RBI. Tornado batters took called third strikes four times in the first two innings before getting to Bauer.

North Hills 020 000 1 — 3 12 3
Butler 104 005 x — 10 13 0
W: C.J. Miller 7 IP 5K, 1BB). L: Jesse Bauer 5 2/3 IP (7K, 3BB).
North Hills (2-1, 0-1): Scott Zubik 2-1B, Brandon Pritchard 1B, Jesse Bauer 1B, Taylor Schmidt 2-2B RBI, Joel Leviere 2-1B RBI, Danny DiMattio 2B 2-1B RBI, Coleman Mazur 1B
Butler (5-1, 1-0): Mick Fennell 1B, Cody Herald 2-1B 2-R, John Crummy 1B RBI, Bobby Swartwout 2B 1B RBI, Ryan Fennell 2-1B 2-RBI 2-R, Roman Bargo 2-2B 1B 3-RBI 2-R, Tyler Slepski 1B 2-RBI, Cody Montgomery 1B RBI