By Marc Tobias
mtobias@dailystandard.com ST. MARYS -- The Roughriders baseball team was able to remain undefeated in the Western Buckeye League thanks in large part to a strong pitching performance from Andy Langsdon.
Langsdan went all seven innings for the Roughriders, allowing one run on five hits while striking out seven with no walks allowed to help St. Marys post a 9-1 win over Van Wert.
The Roughriders starter also helped himself with a strong day at the plate, where he went 2-for-3 with one run scored.
"Andy had to come in last week against Wapakoneta and that was probably the best he's thrown the baseball and I think its given him confidence," said St. Marys coach Fred Hullinger. "He threw minimal pitches tonight, was never really in trouble.
"It was a very solid night, I'm glad to see him picking it up, and getting better as he goes out," Hullinger added. "We'âre going to need our number-one, our number-two and number-three, and he was just very solid tonight." Langsdon also received solid defense from his fellow teammates, something Van Wert starter Eric Putman most likely wishes he had.
St. Marys scored two runs in the second for an early two-run lead with the help of a pair of Cougars errors.
Van Wert then made a pair poor fielding decisions in the fourth and fifth innings to help the Roughriders take full control.
Langsdon and Kyle Cheslock helped set up a five-run third inning by reaching on a single and double.
Ty Widman then hit a grounder to Cougars shortstop Josh Clouse who elected to come home with the ball, but Langsdon scored on the play while Widman was safe at first.
"The kids are very aggressive right now, especially by taking advantage on things like that," Hullinger said of the Roughriders' aggressiveness on the base paths. "We still have some room to go, but their picking up on things as we go and work on them. Excellent job all the way around tonight."
Tim Rammel followed with an RBI double and Matt Helmstetter brought home Widman with a sacrifice fly.
Tom Burke added a single and he would later score on one of Van Wert's five errors.
St. Marys tacked on one more run in the sixth behind two Cougars errors and one in the sixth when Nathan Long hit a sacrifice fly to plate Rammel.
Cheslock had the best day at the plate for St. Marys as he went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI.
St. Marys improves to 11-2 and 3-0 in the WBL while Van Wert falls to 8-6 and 0-3 in league play. |
