Aggressive Parkway takes the measure of Jefferson baseball

By Jim Metcalfe, The Delphos Herald
Published:  Monday, April 2, 2007 (1 year, 3 months ago)
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DELPHOS — Parkway didn’t need to play long-ball with the wind blowing in at Wildcat Field Friday night.
They were the epitome of small-ball against Jefferson, stealing 14 bases and running to a 10-2 non-conference baseball victory.
“We talked before the game about how Parkway would come out ready to prove they’re a better team than they’ve shown so far. They’re also so solid a ball club,” Jefferson coach Troy Montenery noted. “They’ve had a struggle in the early going and you just felt they’d come out like they did.”
Which was in attack mode. The Panthers (2-2) only had eight hits but throw in the 14 steals, four wild pitches by Jefferson hurlers and seven errors, and it quickly added up.
“We wanted to set the tone early. We wanted to be aggressive,” Parkway coach Eric Stachler explained. “We weren’t able to do that our first two games; we got behind. We have some guys that can swing the bat but we have good team speed that we want to use. Their pitchers really didn’t keep an eye on us well; their catcher had no chance. It’s a good idea to challenge defenses to make plays early in the season.”
That they did before the fans at Wildcat Field could get settled. Colby Heiser (2-for-3, 3 runs, 4 steals) led off against sophomore starter Matt Antalis (0-1; 2 1/3 innings, 2 hits, 5 runs, 3 earned, 3 bases-on-balls, 1 strikeout). He walked, proceeded to steal second and third and came home on a throwing error. An out hence, Jordan Painter (2-for-3, 3 runs scored, 3 SBs) planted a triple to right center. Derik Snyder grounded an RBI single to short.
The Jeffcats got a runner (senior Derek Rode) to third with two out in the bottom half but left him there.
Jefferson (2-1) got a run back against Parkway starter Austin Art (1-0; 7 frames, 7 hits, 2 unearned runs, 4 walks, 5 Ks; 103 pitches, 65 strikes) in the second. Adam Kraning belted a 1-out double down the right-field line. A passed ball moved him to third, from where he scored on a high chopper to the pitcher by Antalis.
Parkway kept the aggression up in the top of the third, parlaying an error, two successful suicide squeezes (one for a hit), three stolen bases, two walks, three wild tosses and a sacrifice fly into three runs that chased Antalis and brought in sophomore Sean Fisher (4 2/3 frames, 6 hits, 5 runs, 1 earned, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts).
Parkway tallied three more in the fourth. This time, four singles — two that never left the infield — five steals, a walk and an error accounted for the scores to extend the advantage to 8-1.
Jefferson had an opening in the bottom half but either ran themselves out of the inning or Parkway played heads-up defense. Damon Joseph (2-for-4) blooped a fly to right that was lost in the sun by rightfielder Mike Baldauf but he alertly threw to second to get Joseph trying to stretch it. Kraning blooped a single just out of reach of first sacker Joel Henkle. Antalis’s grounder got through the shortstop into center but centerfielder Painter gunned Kraning down at third and a harmless grounder ended the inning.
“It’s easy to forget that we’re a young team. We basically play five sophomores; that’s our pitching staff, too,” Montenery noted. “We made a lot of youthful mistakes but we’ll learn. These kids will keep working to get better. Every mistake we made, it seemed as if they capitalized.”
The guests got their final two tallies in the fifth. A walk, an error, a wild pitch, a sacrifice fly (by Henkle), a base hit (Heiser), a steal and an error got it done for a 10-1 spread.
Jefferson had chances to retaliate in the sixth. With one out, Joseph singled and swiped a base. A wild pitch put him at third. Kraning walked. Jefferson tried a double-steal; Kraning drew the throw from catcher Drew Luginbill but shortstop Snyder cut it off and made a perfect throw to nail Joseph at home. Cory Bastian walked and a wild pitch moved both runners up but they were left stranded.
The ’Cats did score in the seventh. Jordan Jettinghoff got aboard on an error. Aaron Schuerman singled. An out hence, Josh Miller singled up the gut to plate Jettinghoff but consecutive fly-outs to center ended it.
“We had two great games this week but sometimes, young kids tend to forget how they won those games. Still, I’m not going to let one of those games like this ruin it,” Montenery added.
Parkway takes on Van Wert in a road doubleheader today. Jefferson hosts Lincolnview 5 p.m. Monday.

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