Just when it appeared the defending MINK League champion Beatrice Bruins would run away with the league pennant again in 2008, the Chillicothe Mudcats put up a roadblock this weekend.
    Outstanding pitching, nearly-airtight defense, and just enough offense – whether with their bats or feet – allowed the Mudcats to win the final two games of the teams’ three-game set at Chillicothe’s “June” Shaffer Memorial Park this weekend, capped by a terrific 2-1 victory yesterday afternoon.
    Mudcats pitchers Aaron Meade and Andrew Dunn (2-1) linked up on a five-hitter, shutting down the powerful heart of the Bruins’ order without a hit, and Dominic D’Anna dashed home on a third-strike passed ball in the bottom of the eighth inning to snap a 1-1 deadlock as the Mudcats posted their second-consecutive triumph over Beatrice.  Chillicothe had dealt the Bruins their first loss of the season in nine outings in the second game of a doubleheader the night before.
    “They’re huge wins because this is probably the best team in our (league) right now,” Meade evaluated the back-to-back weekend wins.

    As a result of winning two of three from Beatrice, the Mudcats lifted themselves to .500 in the MINK League at 5-5 and above the break-even mark overall at 8-7. Beatrice dipped to 8-2 overall and 7-2 in the league, still several games in front of the loop’s other six teams.
    In perhaps a bit of bad timing, Chillicothe won’t have a chance to immediately build on the momentum of three wins in its past four games.
    It isn’t scheduled to play again until Thursday when it faces Mac-N-Seitz in the resumption of the suspended June 12 game and then a regularly-scheduled nine-inning contest. The suspended game will be picked up at 4 p.m. Thursday with the start of the 10th inning, tied 4-4. How long it takes to complete that game will determine when the regularly-scheduled action will begin at the Blue Springs South High School field.

    Sunday’s series finale with Beatrice was an outstanding pitchers’ duel between Mudcats lefthander Aaron Meade and Bruins sidearming righty Shane Minks.
Meade allowed only a fifth-inning run on Daniel Adamson’s game-tying homer of the wall in left field, the first roundtripper struck at Shaffer Park this Mudcats season.
    “Today was the first day I’ve ever thrown a cutter (cut fastball) in a game and I just left one up to that kid,” Meade said of the one costly pitch.
    Prior to Sunday’s start, Meade had walked a team-most 13 batters to go with 20 strikeouts in 15 innings. That combination had meant high pitch counts and an inability to get in many innings before being lifted. He had not gone more than five innings in any of three prior starts.
    Facing the Bruins, however, the Kansas Citian gave out only three free passes in seven innings while striking out six.
    “Today Aaron threw a lot more strikes,” assessed Jason Nold, Chillicothe’s assistant coach who works most closely with the pitchers.
    The Missouri State University southpaw gave only five hits in a seven-inning no-decision.
    Minks went even further, throwing an eight-inning complete game, but that also left him the loser.

    With the game tied 1-1 entering the eighth, Kindle and assistant/pitching coach Jason Nold decided they’d asked enough of Meade, calling on righthander Andrew Dunn to face the potent heart of the Beatrice lineup.
    The Southern Illinois University-Carbondale pitcher was up to the challenge, retiring No. 3 hitter Jordan Danks on a routine fly to left, fanning cleanup man Tant Shepherd on a good, low delivery, and getting a grounder right at first baseman Dominic D’Anna from DH Darby Brown.
    Dunn then was put in position for the victory when his teammates scrapped for a tiebreaking run in the bottom of the eighth.
    D’Anna pushed a line drive into left, just out of the reach of shortstop Evan Porter, to start the inning. Tyler Knight bunted him up and Bubby Williams fisted a ball that a retreating Porter came up inches shy of catching up to. Instead, the Mudcats had runners at first and third with one out.
    Despite the jam, Minks was left in by Beatrice manager Bob Steinkamp and he ended up issuing his fifth and final walk of the game to Aaron Conway, loading the bases.
    The count went to 2-2 on Cole Mazurek when Minks broke off what seemed to be a sharp, low slider. Mazurek started to swing, then tried to stop, but couldn’t and was a strikeout victim for the second out. However, his movements may have diminished catcher Kyle Lafrenz’s ability to track the pitch. It got past him about 15-20 feet and D’Anna lit out for home. Even though the Chillicothe first baseman has only about average speed, his quick reaction gave him the advantage he needed to beat Minks and the throw from Lafrenz to the plate with the go-ahead run.

    Now needing only three outs to wrap up a very satisfying win for his team, Dunn did so, although not without incident.
    He walked the first man up in the Beatrice ninth, bringing up Adamson, who had put the only Bruins run on the board with his long ball. However, Steinkamp had Adamson trying to sacrifice the runner along on the first two pitches and the hitter fell behind 0-2. A swing and a miss on Dunn’s next pitch provided the first out of the ninth and, a couple of deliveries later, Travis Parker hit a two-hopper to third baseman Williams, who started a game-ending, around-the-horn twin killing.
    “He missed a start (in Thursday’s rainout against Clarinda), so we wanted to get him some work with this three-day break coming up,” Nold said of the use of Dunn, whose two previous Mudcats appearances had been starts. “He was slated to come in in middle relief, if need be, but with Aaron’s strong start, we knew we had a good opportunity to win with him at the back of the bullpen.”

    Chillicothe’s earlier run had come across in the third inning when Kyle Zimmerman, who had singled leading off the inning, was able to score all the way from first on a throwing error. Beatrice third baseman Tant Shepherd charged and fielded Matty Johnson’s would-be sacrifice bunt and threw hurriedly. On what would have been a bang-bang play had the throw been on target, the ball instead tailed behind the Chillicothe batter as he reached first and skipped into foul territory down the right field line. By the time second baseman Brodie Greene caught up with it, his throw home was not in time to get Zimmerman, giving the Mudcats a 1-0 advantage.

    Meade was on the precipice of falling behind in the fifth after Adamson’s homer to start the inning tied it up.
    Lafrenz’s one-out liner to left landed just fair for a double and Meade then issued consecutive bases on balls to Greene and Evan Porter. That brought up Jordan Danks, Beatrice’s best hitter, for a lefty-vs.-lefty duel.
    After issuing the walks while working from the stretch with a runner at second, Meade went back to the windup with the bases now full and it made a difference. He got in front of Danks and fanned him on a checked swing for the second out, then retired Shepherd on a short fly to right to strand three.
    “I got back in the windup and took a deep breath and went at them,” the Chillicothe hurler recalled the situation, adding he prefers to pitch from the windup “any day. … It’s just where I feel more comfortable.”
    Meade was bailed out by his defense in his last inning of work . With Travis Parker at second with one out, right fielder Aaron Conway darted toward the line to snag Brodie Greene’s bid for an RBI single and left fielder Luke Schlechte then dashed in and to his left – his glove side – to make a sliding catch of Porter’s sinking liner which looked sure to be a hit as it sailed over the infield.

    Statistically, the combined one-run performance of Meade and Dunn meant the league leaders had managed only four runs in their final 16 innings of the three games here.
    It also was the 10th time in 16 Mudcats games thus far Chillicothe pitchers have yielded three or fewer earned runs in a game and the ninth time the opposition has scored three or less including unearned runs.
    Nold said his staff – now up to 13 pitchers, including still-injured Tyler Ryun – has done a good job of implementing the aggressive mentality and style he has sought to instill.
    “You definitely want to be able to command the inside of the zone and then use your off-speed and breaking stuff off the fastball and we’ve done a pretty good job of that for the most part,” the coach praised.
    Although some spells of wildness – especially by relievers, although not always the same ones – have cost the Mudcats several potential wins to this point, there are indications the staff may have turned a corner in that regard. Chillicothe has issued only 11 walks in the last four games combined after doling out 12 in the two before that and having one earlier game in which it passed 15.
    “I think they’re starting to shore that up,” Nold said optimistically.
    Offensively, Chillicothe out-hit Beatrice 9-5 Sunday, led by Williams’ 3-for-4 day. D’Anna had a pair of hits.

    NOTES:  Dunn became the first Chillicothe pitcher to record two wins in 2008. … The Mudcats won the game without an earned run or having a run batted in, scoring once on the throwing error and again on Lafrenz’s passed ball. … The middle of the Beatrice batting order – Danks, Shepherd, and DH Darby Brown – was a combined zero for 11 with one walk Sunday. It had roughed up Chillicothe pitching in the Bruins’ home win over the Mudcats Wednesday and in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader before being tamed for a 1-for-9 performance in Saturday’s nightcap. … Ryun continues to be idled with post-concussion syndrome symptoms, Mudcats head coach “Jud” Kindle confirmed. The Platte City resident was struck in the temple by a foul ball while sitting in the dugout during Chillicothe’s June 8 game at Junction City, Kan.