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Terre Haute hurlers silence Clay County's bats in regional opener
Entering the American Legion Regional Tournament, Clay County Post 2 manager Nathan Stoelting and assistant coach Andrew Kreiger had already mapped out the different pitching equations they’d be up against to finish as the champion or runner-up to advance onto next weekend’s state tournament.
Without multiple pitchers – due to injury and age limitations – that helped Post 2 get through the regular season, as well as strict pitch count rules during the regional, Stoelting and Kreiger had to keep a close eye on how things were going on the mound in Friday’s opening round matchup with Terre Haute Post 346.
Using three arms – Brayden Kreiger, Mason Camp and Logan Stoelting, the latter two throwing 30 pitches or less to ensure they were eligible to throw on Saturday – against the tournament hosts, Clay County fell by a score of 12-0 in five innings, dropping Post 2 into the consolation bracket for the remainder of the weekend.
“We knew we had games to play in front of us, so we’ve had to plan ahead to deal with that. We’ve also had some significant injuries – we had to replace three guys this week – which left us with some kids that haven’t been with us all year, but we’re grateful for them because without them, we don’t get to do this,” said Stoelting. “We’re hurting, but we’ve got to keep planning ahead because we want to be around for a little bit.”
Post 346 plated runs in each of the first three innings, three coming from Northview’s Jackson Pierce on an RBI single up the middle and Caden Schrader on a two-run single down the left field line, which proved to be more than enough run support for Cam Judson, a 6-foot-1 right-hander that posted a 10.19 ERA in 17.2 innings as a freshman at Rose Hulman, and Brady Stepp, an even taller right-hander with a big fastball that posted a 4.67 ERA as a junior at Terre Haute North, as the pair held Clay County to two hits – singles by Kreiger and Jayden Bradbury – in their combined shutout.
The reason for the difficult plate appearances for Post 2? Not seeing high velocity hurlers throughout the summer, said Stoelting.
“We need to work on the velo machine a little bit. That’s one thing with our schedule, and that’s probably my fault more than anything else, that we [were missing]. We’ve competed all year and done well, but we haven’t seen that speed enough. Our kids have to adjust to that,” said Stoelting. “We had trouble with their speed tonight.”
With the loss, Post 2 falls into the consolation bracket, and in doing so, faces an uphill climb to reach Sunday’s championship. But after Friday’s loss, Stoelting gathered his team and told them to be prepared to win two ball games on Saturday, which would clinch a spot in the title tilt as well as a bid to next weekend’s state tournament.
Clay County will have two additional arms – Trey Eldridge and Braiden Moore – to put into the mix the rest of the weekend, which the first-year manager said should benefit the team in a big way.
Regardless, he, along with the rest of the team, anticipates taking down Indianapolis Post 276, a group Clay County split its pair of games with earlier in the summer, and then giving the loser of Terre Haute Post 346-West Terre Haute Post 501 its best shot later that same night.
“We’re going into it planning on winning two games,” Stoelting said. “We’re coming into it with the mindset that we’re going to win the first game and are hopeful Logan [Stoelting, who is slated to be the game’s starting pitcher] will give us some innings because we need that right now with Braiden Moore ready to go whenever we’re ready to make a switch.”
TERRE HAUTE POST 346 (AB-R-H-RBI) – L.Weidenbenner lf 2-3-1-0, B.Weidenbenner cf 1-1-0-1, Stultz 1b 3-1-2-4, Schrader ss 3-1-1-2, Black dh 3-1-2-2, Stepp p 0-0-0-0, Huckaby 2b 2-2-1-1, Olsen c 3-0-0-0, Pierce 3b 3-1-2-1, Osborne rf 3-2-2-0. TOTALS 23-12-11-11.
CLAY COUNTY POST 2 (AB-R-H-RBI) – Johnson c 2-0-0-0, T.Dayhoff 1b 2-0-0-0, Stoelting cf-p 2-0-0-0, Kreiger p-3b-cf 2-0-1-0, Bradbury ss 2-0-1-0, Camp 3b-p-3b 1-0-0-0, McMains c 1-0-0-0, Cooper lf 2-0-0-0, N.Dayhoff rf 1-0-0-0. TOTALS 15-0-2-0.
Terre Haute 147 00 – 12
Clay County 000 00 – 0
2B – Osborne, Stultz. 3B – Black 2. SB – Huckaby 2, B.Weidenbenner.
Pitching
Terre Haute IP H R ER BB SO
Judson (W) 3 0 0 0 1 6
Stepp 2 2 0 0 1 3
Clay County IP H R ER BB SO
Kreiger (L) 2.2 9 11 11 4 2
Camp 1.1 2 1 1 0 1
Stoelting 1 0 0 0 2 2
Next – Clay County (10-7) takes on Indianapolis Post 276 in Saturday’s consolation bracket. Terre Haute (29-7) takes on West Terre Haute Post 501 in Saturday’s winner’s bracket.