ROCKFORD — Jefferson coach Troy Montenery figured Monday night’s baseball showdown at unbeaten Parkway would be a good test to see where his Wildcats stood.
He found out they’re not quite there yet as they were shut out by Shawn Coffman on a 2-hitter and committed six errors in a 7-0 loss at a windy Don Black Memorial Field.
“We didn’t help ourselves with the errors. Parkway’s too strong of a team in scoring runs to give them extra outs,” he explained. “For me, it was the bats. We didn’t hit very well and we hit a lot of pop-ups. Especially on a windy day like today, the wind blowing in, you have to hit the ball hard on the ground. Offense is going to be the key — how consistently we hit this year. We didn’t today.”
Coffman (2-0) was masterful, only walking one and whiffing five in his 94-pitch (70 for strikes) complete game.
“Shawn was outstanding. Consider that this was his first start in and he didn’t play last spring; he threw strikes and that’s what you need on a day like this,” Parkway coach Eric Staugler noted. “We basically did what we had to do to score runs. We weren’t going to hit home runs or hit shots deep to the fence, so we had to be more aggressive than normal. We stole more bases — it was going to be hard for the catcher to make a strong throw to second against this wind.”
The Panthers (6-0) committed three errors in the first two innings but nothing came of it, partly due to the gun of an arm Jordan Thompson has behind home plate, picking off a runner at second in the second after the Wildcats got two runners on with no outs on two errors.
The Wildcats (2-1) struggled in the bottom of the second and the Black and Gold took advantage. Levon Archer (2-for-3, 2 runs) got aboard via an error and stole second. Drew Luginbill walked against Mike Rahrig (4-plus innings, 3 hits, 5 walks, 5 runs, 1 earned) and both promptly stole the next base. An out later, Derick Snyder squeezed home Archer. Jeremy Heiser got aboard on another fielding error, plating Luginbill. Heiser stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a wild pitch on ball four to Jensen Painter for a 3-0 lead. The Panthers left runners on second and third in the frame.
The Wildcats dodged a bullet in the third, with Rahrig inducing a bases-loaded ground ball back to him for the third out.
They got runners at first and second (Matt Antalis and Matt Gerdeman) with one out in the fifth but two fly-outs left them there.
Parkway broke it open with a 4 spot in the bottom half in chasing Rahrig for southpaw Damon “Lefty” Joseph. An error opened the door. Three balks, another error, a walk, two run-scoring singles by Archer and Marcus Meyers and run-scoring bounce-outs by Snyder and Heiser gave Pafrkway the 7-0 advantage.
The Wildcats tried to rally in the seventh, getting a leadoff single by pinch-hitter Taylor Hesseling and a 1-out walk to Cory Bastian, but a strikeout and a pop-up ended the night.
“When you think about it, it was a 3-0 game until the fifth. We had played reasonably well overall,” Montenery added. “Mike didn’t throw poorly; we just didn’t back him in those two innings and he had to work harder. I was most disappointed in our two hits. Fortunately, we don’t have time to dwell on this; we can come right back and see if we can improve things.”
Joseph made a spectacular diving catch in left-center field to rob Ethan Hayes in the fourth.
Mike Baldauf did the same in the seventh to rob Jefferson’s Craig Carder.
“Tonight was a matter of taking advantage of what we received,” Staugler added. “We didn’t get a lot of hits but we got the walks and errors, the wild pitches and balks. We did miss chances to squeeze and those are things we will do, so we have to work on that.”
Jefferson returns to action on the road tonight at Miller City; the Panthers are also in hostile territory as they visit Crestview.
