DELPHOS — Junior Mike Rahrig and senior southpaw Damon Joseph made quick work of Northwest Conference foe Lincolnview Monday night.
The two Jefferson hurlers combined on a 2-hit shutout to goose-egg the Lancers 8-0 in a little over 90 minutes on a brisk Monday afternoon at Wildcat Field in Delphos.
“Mike pitched an outstanding game and worked quickly. He was up in the 70s with his pitch count, so we brought in Damon (2 strikeouts) to finish the job and complete the shutout,” Jefferson coach Troy Montenery explained. “I was happy and pleased with the defense behind them, too. Those are two things we felt were strengths coming in. We had struggled for a couple of games earlier this season but those seem to be over.”
Jefferson (3-3, 1-1 NWC) continued the early-season woes of the Lancers (0-5, 0-1 NWC) and head man Roger Salisbury.
“Games don’t last long when you don’t get many hits and you have a lot of strikeouts,” he began. “Right now, our offense isn’t there. We figured that was an area of concern because that’s where we had the most losses from last spring and we also knew we had a tough early-season schedule, in and out of the league. We’re just not hitting.”
While Rahrig (1-1; 6 innings, 2 hits, 6 Ks, 2 BBs; 77 pitches) was doing his thing on the mound, his teammates gave him all the runs he needed in the bottom of the second against Lancer right-hander Jordan Simpson (0-2; 5 IP, 6 runs, 6 hits, 5 K’s, 3 BBs, 3 ER). Aaron Schuerman led off the inning with a triple to left center and scored on a grounder to first base by Joseph. Craig Carder walked and Matt Antalis hit a double to right field to score him. Cory Bastian walked. Sean Fisher reached on an error which scored Antalis. Josh Miller singled to score Bastian.
The Red and Black made it 6-0 in the fourth inning. With 2 outs, Fisher and Josh Miller reached on back-to-back errors. They stole the next base and senior Adam Kraning then hit a single to score both.
“Even though we lost to LCC last week, combined with this game, these are the two best and most complete games we’ve played all year. We had the entire package: offense, defense, hitting, fielding, base-running,” Montenery added. “I like how we seem to be coming together more and more as a team. This is what I though we were capable of; I think we just needed to get some games in to start clicking.”
The ’Cats made it 8-0 in the sixth against Lancer reliever Mike Evans. Matt Gerdeman led off the inning with a hit to center. Ryan Kortokrax then singled to right field. Fisher singled to right center to score Gerdeman. Miller hit a fly ball to left for the sacrifice as Kortokrax scored.
“I felt Jordan pitched well overall; we just gave him no help either at the plate or in the field,” Salisbury added. “When you figure that we’ve played good non-league competition and Jefferson is one of the league favorites, you simply have to play better. You can’t hurt yourself.”
Jefferson pays a visit to Ottoville tonight. Lincolnview welcomes Lima Central Catholic Thursday
Lincolnview 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 2 3
Jefferson 0 4 0 2 0 2 0 - 8 9 1
WP: Mike Rahrig (1-1); LP: Jordan Simpson. 2B: Sean Fisher (D), Josh Miller (D), Matt Antalis (D). 3B: Aaron Schuerman (D).
