Winter freezes Bruins’ bats in 6-2 win for Crusaders

Helias’ Clayton Winter was so dominant Thursday afternoon that he not only messed things up for the Rock Bridge Bruins, but for his own coaching staff.

The senior pitcher for the Crusaders threw a one-hitter against the Bruins at the American Legion Post 5 Sports Complex, forcing Helias to adapt midway through its 6-2 victory.

“You could see his confidence growing inning by inning by inning — he wanted to be out there,” Helias coach Chris Wyrick said. “We were going to try to get Kale Gerstner some work, but Clayton overheard us and said, ‘No, I want this. I want to stay in there.’ That right there is good to see out of a guy that is at the top of our list as far as who is going to get the ball when it’s crunch time.”

Winter led the Crusaders to their second win against the Bruins in just six days, as Helias topped Rock Bridge 4-2 on Saturday.

“Our pitching was outstanding,” Wyrick said. “As well as we pitched on Saturday, we pitched twice as well tonight. And that’s taking nothing away from Tyler Cassmeyer (who threw a four-hitter Saturday). To only give up one hit against those guys is great.”

Winter faced just one batter over the minimum during the final five innings, and picked up six of his seven strikeouts in the last four frames.

“I felt great out there,” Winter said. “The team did really well except for the second inning, which was a little bad. That was partly on me for walking some people, but other than that, we did a really good job.”

Helias got the game’s first run in the bottom of the first when Nolan Sachse hit a one-out triple and came home on a groundout by Alex Faddoul.

Then came that second inning, when Rock Bridge took a 2-1 lead thanks to the Bruins’ only hit, one error, a dropped third strike, a walk, a wild pitch and a stolen base.

But Winter was able to strand two while getting out of a jam, keeping the Crusaders within striking distance.

“Coach Wyrick always tells me to calm down (in those situations), don’t show you’re frustrated on the mound, and then once the inning’s over, concentrate on the next inning,” Winter said.

He did just that. Only one batter would reach base the rest of the game for the Bruins, that coming on a fourth-inning walk. It got to the point the Bruins were trying the whole roster against Winter, using seven different pinch-hitters in the final three innings.

“You know exactly what you’re going to get from Clayton,” Wyrick said. “He’s a guy that’s going to be around the plate, he’s going to fall behind some hitters, but he’s also going to battle back.

“As a coach, it’s nice to know when I put a guy out there, I know what I’m going to get from him. Hopefully this will propel him to even better things the final weeks of this season.”

Helias took the lead for good with a three-run bottom of the third. Ryan Graessle and Parker Schnieders had RBI singles, with the other run scoring on an error.

The Cruasaders’ final two runs came in the fourth. Landon Harrison’s RBI single was the big blow, with the other run coming home on another Rock Bridge error.

“We didn’t fold when we gave up those two runs,” Wyrick said. “Early in the season, we might have folded. But we just said, ‘The heck with it, the inning is over, let’s move on.’”

Schnieders had two hits and one RBI to pace a seven-hit Helias attack.

“All the way around, it was a good, solid team win for us,” Wyrick said.

Helias (11-7) returns to action at 11 a.m. Saturday when it hosts Father Tolton.