CHILLICOTHE — Riding a meek 3-run first inning which saw two walks around a hit batsman force in all of the runs and then Logan Moon's four runs batted in later in the game, the Chillicothe Mudcats college-level wood-bat baseball team captured their 2011 home opener Saturday night, 11-3 over Strike Zone of Omaha.
The win evened Chillicothe's record at 1-1 heading into a Sunday 7:05 p.m. MINK League home game with the Sedalia Bombers. 6'5" right-hander Derek Roof, who went 7-1 with a 3.79 earned run average for Union University in Tennessee this spring, is Chillicothe's expected starting pitcher, according to Fish head coach Kirk Kelley.
Sedalia, led by former Chillicothe head coach "Jud" Kindle, swept the Mudcats in last year's league championship series after Chillicothe had done the same to it in 2009. The Bombers have dropped their first two games of 2011, falling to sizzling St. Joseph 8-5 at Sedalia Friday and 6-5 at St. Joe Saturday. St. Joseph's Mustangs have yet to lose this season, standing 7-0 with four-straight MINK League wins after starting with a trio of non-league victories.
After managing only two runs in their debut defeat against Diamond Spirit of Omaha on the road Friday, Chillicothe made some better contact against Strike Zone, stroking 11 hits. It also put another dozen runners aboard via the generosity of the Strike Zone pitchers, who walked eight and hit four. And, as if that wasn't enough, the Omaha team committed a half-dozen errors to keep the merry-go-round of Mudcats baserunners almost operating near full capacity.
The tone was set from the outset.
After a game-starting double, a single, and a sacrifice fly to left field by Colby McCord put Strike Zone ahead of Mudcats starting pitcher Bryce Biggerstaff in the top of the first, left-handed starter Kellen Smith of the Omahans gave up six baserunners and three runs in the bottom half.
Justin Creel's and Zach Esquerra's back-to-back 1-out singles set the stage. With two outs, they pulled a double-steal, but that became immaterial when Dylan Ketchum then was hit by a pitch to load the sacks. A 5-pitch walk to Will Lindsey brought home the tying run and Curtiss Bunch (LaPlata) was hit by a 1-1 Smith offering to make it 2-1, Chillicothe. A full-count pitch to first baseman Dusty Phelps then missed, scoring Ketchum for a 3-1 lead.
Strike Zone nicked Biggerstaff for its own soft tally in the fourth, getting within 3-2 when the Mudcats pitcher walked three straight with two outs and a man on first. A well-hit fly to left off southpaw reliever Talan Roepcke (1-0) was collected by Ketchum, however, to end the inning without further damage.
The Mudcats began to take a firm grip on win No. 1 in their fifth. Another hit batsman and Bunch's hit-and-run single on a grounder to shortstop put the first two on. Roepcke's perfect sacrifice bunt put both in scoring position, which proved critical after a bouncer to third produced the second out, but no run. The righthanded-hitting Moon (Lee's Summit) lashed a 1-0 pitch up the middle and Bunch followed Lindsey across, making it 5-2. After a swipe of second, Moon dashed home on pinch-hitter Matt Creel's line-drive single to center in his first Mudcats at-bat.
Chillicothe's own Alex Singleton made an unexpected pitching appearance, taking over from Roepcke to start the sixth. The right-hander, who played mostly outfield and pinch-ran during an injury-hampered spring season at Northwest Missouri State University, understandably wasn't particularly sharp. However, he was resilient and resourceful in going two innings of 1-run ball.
After quickly walking the first two batters he faced, Singleton settled down to get the next three in the sixth. In the seventh, following a Bunch RBI single which scored Nick Palese (puh-LAY-see), who had doubled leading off the home sixth, Singleton gave up a leadoff double and a 2-out RBI double to Mike Siwa (see-wah).
Taking over a 7-3 game in the eighth, Chillicothe's Zack Malone easily worked around a 2-out single before stranding a 2-out hit batsman in the ninth to end it.
In between, the Mudcats blew it wide open in their eighth when Moon followed Cory Ford's run-scoring, bases-full forceout grounder with a gap-plugging 2-run double to right-center that scored Bunch from third and Ford easily from first. A wild throw toward the infield allowed Moon to scoot into third, from where he scored without a play on a wild pitch to complete the game's scoring.
Statistically, while center fielder Moon's two hits and four knocked in led the numbers, third sacker Bunch had a perfect night, finishing two for two with two runs scored, two driven in, a walk, and a hit by pitch. Ketchum collected two hits, as well, and Lindsay was on four times in five plate appearances via two hit by pitches and two bases on balls. He scored twice, too.
None of Chillicothe's four pitchers allowed more than one run. Roepcke earned the victory as the first reliever, escaping Biggerstaff's fourth-inning jam without further damage and then tossing a hitless, scoreless fifth.
