Dorner's 300th win is a 4-0 shutout

It was a historic day for St. Henry baseball head coach John Dorner and it took a pitching gem to make it happen.

St. Henry's Jon Clune tossed a three-hitter in a 4-0 shutout over Celina on Monday at Montgomery Field as Dorner claimed his 300th career win.

"The kids knew that today could have been my 300th career win and they played hard. It was a big win because it came against a quality program like Celina," said Dorner. "The only way that you can win 300 games is by sticking around awhile and that's what I've done. I've been around 18 years and have been fortunate."

Clune was in control from the outset cruising through the Celina batting order with the Redskins' defense nearly flawless behind him. Clune allowed a single in the first and a single in the second before another harmless single in the sixth frame to account for all of the Bulldogs' hits.

"Let's give Clune some credit out there for the way that he pitched, because when I talked with the home plate ump, he told me that both pitchers were moving the ball inside and out and pitching nice ball games," said Braun. "I don't ever expect to get shutout, so you have to give credit to Clune. You won't win a whole lot of games scoring zero runs."

In the complete-game effort on the hill, Clune struck out five and walked one while forcing 13 ground-ball outs in the contest.

"Jon Clune pitched a heckuva a game for us," said Dorner. "He pitched ahead in the count and kept the ball down. That was the key for him, keeping the ball down, because Celina can swing the bats."

"I really don't remember him getting the ball up in the zone too much," said Braun. "He kept it in the basement and low in the zone. We hit a couple of balls hard but he dominated us today."

Celina's Kyle Pfeffenberger nearly matched Clune pitch-for-pitch through the first five frames, limiting St. Henry to just one run on four hits, but the Bulldogs' defense aided the Redskins in the sixth inning.

The Bulldogs got the first out of the sixth but then committed three errors in the inning, for three unearned runs, on routine plays allowing the Redskins to build a comfortable cushion.

"Those three errors in the inning really hurt us and we can't afford to do that when we were swinging the bats the way we were," said Braun. "It was just one bad inning that thas been costing us early in the season and I'm not sure if we're just losing our concentration or what. But we can't give a team six outs in an inning."

Clune, who also had two hits on the day in addition to his mound duties, had an RBI single while Kyle Bruggeman, also with a pair of hits, added an RBI double to highlight the St. Henry offense in the sixth.

The Redskins took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Bruggeman drew a walk and later scored on a Nick Bruns RBI double, before the three-run sixth frame.

St. Henry is back in action again today hosting Van Wert while Celina (2-5) will travel to Versailles to face the Tigers.