PERRY TOWNSHIP — St. John’s senior southpaw Tyler Bowersock may not blow anyone away with pure speed on his fastball.
However, when he can throw his off-speed pitches for strikes, that fastball looks a lot faster.
That was his game plan Thursday afternoon at Perry High School, where he scattered three Upper Scioto Valley hits and tossed a 3-0 shutout at the Rams in Division IV sectional baseball action.
The Jays (7-14) take on the Columbus Grove/Pandora-Gilboa winner Thursday at Shawnee in sectional-final play.
“He doesn’t throw 85 miles per hour but when he can throw the changeup, curve and breaking ball for strikes, his speed looks much higher. He really mixed it up, changed speeds and moved the ball around the plate,” St. John’s coach Dan Metzger explained. “He’s one of our two seniors. We need him to lead this team if we’re going to make a run in the tournament and he got us off to a good start today.”
Bowersock (2-4) threw 79 pitches in his complete game, 60 for strikes. He did not walk a batter and fanned seven.
The Jays gave him all the run support he needed in the home half of the first frame against losing pitcher Nick Dyer (6 IP, 5 hits, 3 runs, 2 earned, 6 bases-on-balls; 100 pitches, 53 strikes). Jeremy Kline led off with a Texas-leaguer to left and Tyler Bergfeld walked. Both advanced on a wild pitch. Bowersock helped his own cause with a line single the opposite way — to left — to plate Kline and put runners on the corners. Bowersock stole second. Curt Metzger bounced out to second to get Bergfeld home for the second tally of the inning.
Dyer got to third on a 2-base throwing error to lead off the second and a fly ball to right by Jake Nelson but Shaun Allen popped up to the grass behind second base and Seth Bischoff fanned to end that threat.
The Blue and Gold got its final run in the third. Bergfeld doubled to right center. A 2-out balk got him to third and he touched home plate courtesy of a rip up the gut by Nate Webb. Chris Pohlman and Jordan Rode walked to juice the sacks but Ram rightfielder Justin Harsh saved at least two runs by catching up to Brandon Hemker’s drive in right center.
Travis Craft got a 1-out single in the fourth but was gunned down trying to burgle second by Jays freshman catcher Pohlman.
The Jays hit a couple of balls hard in the next two frames but right at defenders.
“The concern from today is our hitting. We’re going to need to pick up our offense if we’re going to keep going,” coach Metzger noted. “We have really struggled hitting the ball the last two weeks. We did enough today but we’re going to be seeing better teams that will score runs, so we have to score more. We can’t rely on shutouts.”
Allen got a 1-out hit to left in the fifth but was picked off base by Bowersock, with Bergfeld eventually making the tag.
The Jays tried to get more breathing room in the sixth. With one down, Rode beat out an infield hit off the pitcher’s glove. However, he was nabbed stealing second by Luke Oglesbee. Hemker and Joel Pohlman walked, with Hemker stealing third. However, the pair was left on base.
Oglesbee led off the USV seventh with a bunt single, with a throwing error getting him to second. He never got any farther: a pop up, a comebacker and a fly ball got Bowersock out of the inning.
“Defensively, we only made a couple of mistakes. That has been an area of concern and I hope this is a good sign,” Metzger added.
The Jays host Fort Recovery in a regular-season makeup game Monday.