Prep Baseball Badin 9, Hamilton 0
Badin hands rival Big Blue first shutout loss in 111 games
Hamilton pitchers struggle with nine walks as the Rams extend their winning streak to 13.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
HAMILTON — In rivalry games such as the Badin-Hamilton prep baseball classic, they say you can throw the records out the window.
For Big Blue coach Dan Bowling, that's probably just the start of things he'd like to throw after watching his team's most recent performance.
Extras
Four Big Blue pitchers combined to issue nine walks, while three Rams combined to throw a two-hit shutout as Badin recorded a 9-0 victory Saturday night, May 10, at Foundation Field.
The win was the Rams' 13th in a row, raising their record to 19-6, while Hamilton lost for the fifth time in its last six tries to fall to 13-14.
"I don't want to take anything away from Badin, because they're a good team, but that was typical of the way we've been playing of late," Bowling said. "Walks have been a nightmare all year. Some people count sheep at night. I go home and count bases on balls."
Three of the nine walks came in the second inning when Badin scored six runs, all of which came with two outs. Corey Van Natta and Garrett Seger each delivered two-run singles, while Zach Toerner pushed across another run with a bases-loaded walk, and Hamilton never put up any kind of fight after that.
"That's not at all the kind of game we expected," Van Natta said. "We thought they were gonna play with a lot more intensity. They just didn't seem to have the fire we thought they were gonna have."
Brett McKinney (4-2) threw three innings of one-hit ball, and Tyler Doyle and Chad Beatty each tossed two perfect innings as the Rams retired 13 Hamilton hitters in a row to end the game.
"When we make mistakes, our heads just go right down in the sand, and that's not the mark of a good team," Bowling said. "That's what bothers me as a coach. It's not the losses, it's the way we lose that competitive edge that you have to have to play this game."
Mike Denning and Eric Cook both pitched well in relief of starter and losing pitcher Brandon Turner (1-1). Denning and Cook combined for 4 1/3 innings of three-hit shutout ball, but the game essentially was over before they ever stepped on the mound.
Toerner added a two-run single in the third inning and finished 1-for-1 with three walks, three RBIs and a run scored. Van Natta was 2-for-5 with a double, two RBIs and a run, and Tony Cassano, Nate Jackson and Scott Staarmann each scored twice while combining to draw six of the nine Big Blue walks.
Michael Wilkins and Randy Mayes each singled to account for the only two hits for Hamilton, which suffered its first shutout loss since a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Lakota East on April 8, 2005 — a span of 111 games.
"That's really saying something to be the first team to shut them out with the schedule they play," Badin coach Rick Kunkel said.
The Rams return to action Monday with a regular-season makeup game at home against Wyoming.
Hamilton's next game will be a Division I sectional contest Wednesday at home against the winner of Monday's Talawanda-Western Brown game.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2193 or jmorrison@coxohio.com.
