Pitching thrives in second-straight Spoofhound win
JON DYKSTRA/THE FORUM
Maryville junior Grant Diggs throws a pitch on Friday at the Ballpark at the Hound Pound against Northeast Nodaway.
MARYVILLE, Mo. — After two losses to open the season, Maryville needed a tone-setter to get the team’s confidence started and senior Grant Smail delivered that with a a complete-game shutout in a 2-0 win over Maysville last Thursday night.
In baseball, the saying is ‘momentum is tomorrow’s starting pitcher,’ and for the Spoofhounds, that responsibility fell to Ben Houtchens. The junior answered the bell on Friday in a 6-2 win over Northeast Nodaway with five 3-hit innings and five strikeouts.
“I felt great,” Houtchens said. “I went out there, threw some strikes, our defense made some great plays and we sat them down.”
Maryville (2-2) got off to an early lead with a sacrifice fly by senior Gus McCollough. Bluejay starter Lance Runde kept the damage to a minimum and got out of the inning with a 1-0 score.
The Spoofhounds added another run in the second inning with sophomore Carson Hageman driving in a run.
Runde and Houtchens kept the opposing bats quiet over the next few innings as the Spoofhounds’ 2-0 lead stood up until the fifth inning with strong defense from both sides highlighting it. For Maryville, Jackson Wilmes made several nice plays at shortstop and Tyler Parsons had a diving catch in center field.
“Defense is a huge part of our game this year and I think that is two games in a row with no errors,” Maryville coach Hans Plackemeier said. “Pitching was spot on.”
For Northeast Nodaway, third baseman Jake Redden snagged a liner to end an inning. The outfield was sharp all night, dealing with the wind.
“Boys did a great job bringing it in and making the throw in,” Northeast Nodaway coach Cody Green said. “… Our infield is working. They are getting better every single day and they are going to get there.”
The Bluejays cut the deficit in half in the top of the fifth inning with Brayden Stevens hitting a sacrifice fly to plate Runde and pull within 2-1.
Maryville got its insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth inning with Canon Creason and Gus McCollough hitting back-to-back singles to begin the inning. Senior Gavin McAtee hit a 2-run single with one out to push the margin to 5-1. Moore added an RBI for a 6-1 lead.
“We couldn’t have asked for any more from Gavin tonight,” Plackemeier said. “He came up clutch. He’s been hitting the ball hard all year. They just hadn’t been falling, but tonight, they did.”
Stevens drove in his second run of the game and Runde scored his second run of the game in the top of the seventh. Grant Diggs limited the damage there though and picked up the save with the 6-2 win.
Houtchens pitched five innings with three hits allowed, no earned runs, one walk and five strikeouts. Diggs allowed three hits in two innings with one earned run, two walks and two strikeouts.
“My first-pitch strikes really helped me,” Houtchens said. “I was just trying to put it over the plate and make something happen.”
Runde pitched 5 1/3 innings with four hits allowed, two earned runs, two walks and two strikeouts.
“He did a great job,” Green said. “Super proud and impressed with Lance. It is something that we talk about as coaches that we needed from him this year. We knew that last year, he was one of our most accurate pitchers, but we wanted to get more time for him to develop. Just super proud of him. Can’t say enough about what he did today.”
Maryville begins a 5-game road trip with two games in Kirksville (Macon and Kirksville) on Saturday and games at Benton, South Harrison and Lafayette next week.
“We are just going to keep doing what we do,” Plackemeier said.
Northeast Nodaway hosts DeKalb on Monday and has road trips to East Atchison on Thursday and Albany on Friday.
“They are learning games,” Green said of the first four games of the schedule. “They are great games to figure out where we are at and what we need to do, especially as we head into these conference games.”
