May 09, 2007 - 04:16:09 CDT
Alex Allen's Tuesday shutout may not have been the most elegant in history - he stranded 10 St. Mary's runners -but the Century right-hander will take it."We needed this game bad," Allen said after he blanked St. Mary's 3-0 on Tuesday at Municipal Ballpark. "We've got to get something going here with the end of the season coming up. We couldn't drop both of them."
Allen's seven goose eggs salvaged a doubleheader split for the Patriots, who dropped a 5-1 decision in the first game. That contest was dominated by Saints pitcher Zach Klabo.
Allen had to step around some serious messes in blanking St. Mary's. The Saints left the bases loaded in the first, third and sixth innings.
St.Mary's best shot at scoring came in the sixth. With one out, Allen walked Joel Porter and surrendered singles to James Carroll and Mitch Feist, loading the bases. Allen coaxed a second-pitch pop out to right field from See Split, Page 4D
JonHerold for the second out and got CodyErhardt to bounce into a second-pitch force out to end the inning.
"Iput too many guys on myself," Allen said, pointing to his four walks. "But our defense played really well, and we didn't make many mental mistakes. We played pretty solid baseball all the way around."
St.Mary's coach Kent Schweigert said the Saints had Allen in their sights but couldn't pull the trigger. "We just couldn't get the hit when we needed it," he said. "How many guys did we strand?"
Allen got all the breathing room he needed in the bottom of the first inning. Chris Wenzel and Hunter Johnson opened the rally with singles. ZachWentz loaded the bases when hard-charging MitchFeist dropped his looper to left field for an error.Nate Schlosser and Taylor Isakson rapped back-to-back sacrifice flies and Century had a 2-0 lead.
From that point, Allen held the fort, scattering seven hits. He needed 106 pitches to get the job done, 67 of them strikes.
"My curveball was really working today," the CHSsenior said. "I was even throwing it on the first pitch sometimes. ... And Ikept the ball low. ... My last game (a 7-0 loss to Bismarck) I didn't get the ball down, and that got me in trouble."
Klabo, a senior righty, put up some impressive numbers in the first game. He fanned 10, walked two and hit a man.
The only run he surrendered was unearned and gave Century a 1-0 lead in the second inning.
St.Mary's took the lead for good with two in the home third as CodyErhardt belted an RBItriple and scored on TomSeifert's sac fly.
The Saints broke the game open in the sixth, scoring three times without a hit. All three runs sprinted home on suicide squeezes - by Matt Chuppe, James Carroll and Stefan Ming.
A Century pitchout foiled a fourth straight squeeze attempt by Herold. Chuppe was tagged out by catcher Taylor Isakson at the plate and Ming was trapped off first base for a unusual 2-3 double play.
"Four squeezes in a row is interesting, but it worked out for us," Klabo said.
Klabo, who was charted with 80 pitches and 42 balls, finished well. He retired the final nine men he faced.
All but two of Klabo's 10 strikeouts were on fastballs. He got one on a curve and one with a changeup.
"Toward the end I mixed it up ... but for the most part my fastball was real good today,"Klabo said. "Probably something like 75 percent were fastballs. The rest were changeups and curves."
Century bit on several fastballs that were from shoulder- to chin-high.
"It seemed like Ihad them off balance and I was able to put my fastball by them, and until they started to hit, I wasn't going to do anything different,"Klabo said. "...Iwas just going with what worked."
The split leaves Century 7-5 in the West Region and 14-8 overall.St. Mary's stands 3-9 in the region and 5-13 overall.
Schweigert said a split wasn't his first choice, but any kind of win was welcome.
"We got off the schneid a little bit," Schweigert said. "We'd lost 10 in a row. Idon't know if we've ever done that before."
3 NOTES:Both games counted in the regional standings. The first game was a makeup of an April 19 rainout. ... St. Mary's played without catcher-pitcher Drew Eichele, who is sidelined with what may be a strained abdominal muscle. ... St. Mary's will play two regional games with Beulah at Municipal Ballpark on Thursday. Starting time is 4:15 p.m. The Saints were originally scheduled to play twin bills with the Miners on Thursday at Beulah and on Saturday inBismarck.
St.Mary's 5, Century 1
Century 010 000 0 - 1 4 1
St. Mary's 002 003 x - 5 4 1
Chris Wenzel,Sam Wagner (6) and Taylor Isakson; Zach Klabo and ZachReisenauer. W- Klabo, 1-2. L- Wenzel, 1-2. HR- None.
Highlights:C -Nate Schlosser 1-for-3, double, 1 R, 1 SB; Wenzel 5 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 SO. SM -CodyErhardt 2-for-3, triple, 1 R, 1 RBI; Stefan Ming 1-for-3, 1 R, 1 RBI; Klabo 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 10 SO.
Century 3, St. Mary's 0
St. Mary's 000 000 0 - 0 7 2
Century 200 100 x - 3 8 0
Matt Chuppe and Zach Klabo; Alex Allen and Taylor Isakson.W - Allen, 2-2. L- Chuppe, 0-4. HR- None.
Highlights:SM-Klabo 2-for-4; MitchFeist 3-for-3. C-Chris Wenzel 2-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 SB; Hunter Johnson 2-for-3, 1 R; Allen 7 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 7SO.
Records:Century 7-5 West Region, 14-8 overall;St. Mary's 3-9, 5-13.
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