Little things working for Butler
Unbeaten Tornado hand
P-R 1st defeat, 9-4
April 10, 2018 High School Baseball
The little things made a big difference.
The Butler baseball team executed
hit-and-run plays, moved runners along with bunts (and with a suicide squeeze),
stole bases — including a swipe of home — and had two more batters hit by
pitches.
Meanwhile, Pine-Richland had a runner thrown
out at home, one picked off first base and had two more runners gunned down
trying to steal.
The Golden Tornado won the battle of the
little things and in turn the war in downing the Rams 9-4 in the section opener
for both teams at Kelly Automotive Park.
“I sit back and I'll watch games on TV,”
said Butler coach Cody Herald. “The game has changed so much. Now it's all
drive the ball over the fence.
“We do the small stuff.”
Butler did a lot of the small stuff against
Pine-Richland on another night best suited for football or pond hockey than
baseball with a steady snow falling throughout the game.
The Golden Tornado (5-0, 1-0) moved up 90
feet every chance they got and moved runners 90 more feet with situational
hitting.
That led to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the
second inning without a hit and led to a big third inning that gave the Tornado
a 5-0 lead.
Sure, there were some big hits, too.
Ryan Lynn doubled home a pair of runs and
Isaiah Lucas also had a RBI double.
“Obviously we're trying to drive balls in
the gap,” Herald said. “But there's going to come times where we have to put
bunts down and we have to hit and run.”
Nick Kibbie lashed
a single to right in that third inning on a perfectly executed hit-and-run to launch
the big inning.
Lynn stole home in the same frame.
Clean-up hitter Grant Metzger contributed to
that four-run frame as well with a sacrifice bunt on an
0-2 count.
“That's what we call being unselfish,”
Herald said. “You're giving your at-bat away for the better of the team.”
Pine-Richland coach Kurt Wolfe lamented his
team gave too much away.
The Rams (5-1, 0-1) were
uncharacteristically sloppy in the game and reckless on the basepaths.
“It's tough because you have young kids
trying to do some things,” Wolfe said. “We got down early and it was a case of
them maybe trying to do too much.”
Butler starter Connor Ollio
was masterful the first time through the Pine-Richland order, striking out six.
The sailing wasn't as smooth for the big
senior right-hander in the next two frames.
Ollio wiggled out of a jam in
the fourth inning with only one run scoring, but wasn't as lucky in the fifth
when the Rams scored three unearned runs against him.
Three of Ollio's
four walks came in those two innings. He got the win, going five innings,
striking out seven and surrendering just one earned run.
“There were too many mistakes and we just
couldn't overcome them,” Wolfe said. “We knocked Ollio
out and then they brought in another kid that throws well.”
That kid was Nash Bryan and he showcased his
wipeout stuff again, striking out four in his two hitless innings.
“Every pitch he has moves,” Herald said.
“Nash is one of those kids who you wish would have played high school baseball
a long time ago. Just watching him pitch, though, it looks like he's been
around for a long time.”
Butler responded to the fifth-inning
Pine-Richland rally with one of its own in the bottom of the frame.
The four-run inning got started by Lynn, who
was hit by a pitch.
Butler batters have now been hit 12 times in
five games.
Brandon Fleeger
and Justin Stewart drove in runs with bunts in the inning, Stewart's a suicide
squeeze that scored Fleeger.
“The big difference on this team is they are
buying into the team, not, 'I need to do this.'” Herald said. “It's more of,
'What can I do to produce something?' We do a lot of things. We fake steal and
that moves the infielders around and makes holes. They've really committed to
the plan and are executing it.”
Pine-Richland 000 130 0 — 4 6 2
Butler 014 040 x — 9 8 1
W: Connor Ollio
5IP (7K, 4BB). L: Bryce Grenet 2.2IP (2K, 2BB).
Pine-Richland (5-1, 0-1): Jacob Weinberg 1B,
Josh Johnson 1B 2B 2-RBI, Craig Kunkel 1B RBI, Josh Scherer 2-1B RBI
Butler (5-0, 1-0): Nick Kibbie
2-1B, Ryan Lynn 2B 2-RBI, Ollio 1B, Grant Metzger 1B,
Brandon Fleeger RBI, Isaiah Lucas 2B RBI, Jake Keene
1B RBI, Justin Stewart RBI, Garet Banner 1B