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Timely hitting and a gritty performance by starting pitcher Spencer Schwandt paid off for the Blue Springs Rod’s Sports Athletics Wednesday.
Schwandt went the distance, and overcame a two-error, two-unearned run seventh inning as the 29-13 A’s claimed a 7-5 victory over Warrensburg Post 131 at the Independence Athletic Complex to get off to a winning start in the 23rd annual American Legion Wood Bat Invitational.
“Everything was pretty good today except our defense, which (stunk),” A’s manager Mike Rooney said. “It’s huge to get a win in your first game, and it was tougher for Spencer than it had to be because of our defense.
“And you don’t want to give up any more runs than necessary because they go by number of runs allowed and number of runs scored in case of a tie, and they’re calling for rain tomorrow, so winning today was very important.”
David Stober’s two-run triple in the top of the sixth inning drove in what proved to be the game-winning runs. Warrensburg scored two unearned runs in the bottom of the seventh on back-to-back infield errors and a two-run double by Jacob Huffman.
“At the time, it gave us a four-run lead, so I didn’t think much of it,” said Stober, who finished with two hits, two RBIs and a run scored. “It just shows you how important it is to drive home runners on base. Rooney talks about it all the time, and today, we were able to get in most runners.”
Stober’s teammate, Alex Duvall, also had two RBIs with a sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly.
“Any way you get a run in is huge,” Rooney said. “I thought Spencer threw a strong game. We got runs in with sacrifices, and we got them in with some big hits. A 7-5 game is a high-scoring game in the Wood Bat, so we’ll take it and see what happens tomorrow.”
Schwandt set the stage for the A’s with a masterful second inning.
Huffman led off with a single, stole second and went to third when the throw sailed into center field.
Schwandt, using a nasty slider, struck out the next three Warrensburg batters.
“My slider was my out pitch today,” Schwandt said. “It was really breaking late.”
He took a 7-3 lead into the seventh, and had to pitch out a jam because of the two infield errors.
Timely hitting and a gritty performance by starting pitcher Spencer Schwandt paid off for the Blue Springs Rod’s Sports Athletics Wednesday.
Schwandt went the distance, and overcame a two-error, two-unearned run seventh inning as the 29-13 A’s claimed a 7-5 victory over Warrensburg Post 131 at the Independence Athletic Complex to get off to a winning start in the 23rd annual American Legion Wood Bat Invitational.
“Everything was pretty good today except our defense, which (stunk),” A’s manager Mike Rooney said. “It’s huge to get a win in your first game, and it was tougher for Spencer than it had to be because of our defense.
“And you don’t want to give up any more runs than necessary because they go by number of runs allowed and number of runs scored in case of a tie, and they’re calling for rain tomorrow, so winning today was very important.”
David Stober’s two-run triple in the top of the sixth inning drove in what proved to be the game-winning runs. Warrensburg scored two unearned runs in the bottom of the seventh on back-to-back infield errors and a two-run double by Jacob Huffman.
“At the time, it gave us a four-run lead, so I didn’t think much of it,” said Stober, who finished with two hits, two RBIs and a run scored. “It just shows you how important it is to drive home runners on base. Rooney talks about it all the time, and today, we were able to get in most runners.”
Stober’s teammate, Alex Duvall, also had two RBIs with a sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly.
“Any way you get a run in is huge,” Rooney said. “I thought Spencer threw a strong game. We got runs in with sacrifices, and we got them in with some big hits. A 7-5 game is a high-scoring game in the Wood Bat, so we’ll take it and see what happens tomorrow.”
Schwandt set the stage for the A’s with a masterful second inning.
Huffman led off with a single, stole second and went to third when the throw sailed into center field.
Schwandt, using a nasty slider, struck out the next three Warrensburg batters.
“My slider was my out pitch today,” Schwandt said. “It was really breaking late.”
He took a 7-3 lead into the seventh, and had to pitch out a jam because of the two infield errors.
“Errors happen,” Schwandt said. “That’s part of baseball. It just made the game last a little bit longer. We won, and that’s what is important.”
JACKSON (MO.) POST 158 6, HI-BOY DRIVE IN/POST 340 5: Kendall Fay’s two-out single in the bottom of the eighth inning gave Jackson Post 158 a one-run victory over Hi-Boy Drive-In/Post 340 at the IAC.
“That’s a tough way to lose your opening game in the tournament,” Hi-Boy coach Gene Ryals said. “We couldn’t get the little things done to win. We had runners on and couldn’t move them up. We couldn’t bunt, and it came back to cost us the game.”
Hi-Boy took a 5-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh when Jackson scored three runs to knot the score at 5-all.
Fay’s game-winning hit came off Spencer Gearhart, the third Hi-Boy pitcher.
Jackson pitcher Logan Bartles was injured when a foul ball, on a bunt attempt, struck him in the face. He was taken to an area hospital and his coaches and teammates are awaiting the results of X-rays and tests.
