Jays pitchers dominate in two wins Saturday

It was a warm and sunny day at Jefferson City's Vivion Field, so much so an umpire noted it was the first game all season he’d broken a sweat.

Luckily, the bats were giving him a steady breeze.

J.T. Bohlken and Jacob Weirich fanned a combined 21 hitters Saturday as the Jefferson City Jays beat Glendale 3-2 and Webb City 3-1.

“Well, if you do the math here,” Jefferson City coach Brian Ash said, “you cut down about half the game with no offense for them. In that respect, any time you can get a strikeout in big situations, when they’ve got runners in scoring (position), it’s huge. And they’re both capable of getting strikeouts.”

While piling up K’s was the winning recipe on defense, offensively the Jays scored each of thir winning runs on a hit and run.

“We were trying to be aggressive,” Ash said. “I think sometimes when you struggle scoring, sometimes as a coach you try to maybe be overaggressive. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.”

Saturday, it did. In the opener, all of Jefferson City’s scoring came on a home run sent over the left-field wall by Gaven Strobel while Tyler Bise and Grant Wood were breaking from first and second base, respectively.

“We had a hit and run on, so I was just looking to drive something, advance the runners,” Strobel said.

While that play was more hit than run, the tactic worked more traditionally in the second game, when Kade Franks doubled to plate an off-and-running Bohlken from first base.

“Sometimes you’ve got to hit and run and … do some things like that,” Ash said, “just trying to force them to swing and trust that, hey, in 2-0 counts and 3-1 counts or even 1-1 counts, you’re going to get a ball that you can probably hit.”

In the opener, Strobel’s home run was all the offense Jefferson City needed with Bohlken on the mound. He held Glendale hitless through the first four innings and struck out 10 batters on three hits and a walk in seven innings.

“It’s high-school baseball. You’re not going to no-hit too many guys,” Ash said. “But J.T. was, I felt like, in command. … They didn’t square too many balls up on him.”

The Jays squandered one scoring chance in the third inning; Brandon Williams stood on third with one out thanks to a single, a sacrifice and a steal.

But they made up for it the next inning. Wood walked and Kade Franks knocked a Texas leaguer to right before Bise entered as a courtesy runner. Strobel sent the next pitch packing.

“He even got fooled a little bit,” Ash said. “He got out a little bit early, but put a great swing on it and it went over the fence and we’re up 3-0.”

It took the Jays a bit to adjust to Glendale starter Caleb Combs and his sidearmed southpaw pitching motion.

“He had a little funky delivery,” Strobel said. “But he wasn’t throwing the hardest.”

The Falcons’ runs came in the sixth, when an error, an infield hit and a softly hit single cut the lead to 3-2. However, that was as close as Glendale would get.

In the afternoon game, Jefferson City got behind early when a Webb City double turned into a run because of a throwing error. The Jays responded, however, with a leadoff single from Weirich and a Bohlken RBI double deep to right-center to score courtesy runner Logan Schmitz.

Bohlken drove in the next run of the game, too, when his third-inning single plated Blaine Meter, who doubled down the left field line to begin the inning. Bohlken scored two batters later on the hit and run double from Franks.

The Jays stranded runners on third in the fourth and sixth innings, but Webb City couldn’t take advantage. The Cardinals put runners on third in the second and third inning, but Weirich ended each inning with a strikeout.

In the fifth, Weirich cancelled out a leadoff walk by picking off the runner before he threw another pitch.

“It wasn’t even his best move,” Ash said. “We were just trying to see if the guy was going to bunt … and next thing you know, I look over and the runner’s just staring like he wasn’t looking at the pitcher.”

The Cardinals could’ve used the runner. The next two batters singled, and first baseman Hayden Hirschvogel prevented any runs from coming across by stopping a hard-hit grounder with his chest.

“Hayden’s always going to play defense,” Ash said. “He laid on the ball and made sure that it didn’t get by.”

Weirich then struck out five of the next seven batters to end the game. He finished the game with 11 strikeouts, allowing no earned runs in seven innings on six hits and two walks — despite not having his best stuff.

“His velocity was down a little bit, so he had to pitch,” Ash said. “And his command isn’t like it normally is. I don’t know how many full counts he went. It was either he got an out on a first pitch or it went full count. Like, there was no happy medium.”

But the result was plenty happy for the Jays, who improved to 18-5. They host Lebanon at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday for senior night.

Jefferson City picked up two JV wins as well Saturday.

First, the Jays beat Webb City 16-2. Colin Metz had three hits and two RBI. Joseph Travis had two hits and two RBI, as did Cole Ahrens. Tucker Jett had three hits and an RBI. Travis was the winning pitcher, throwing a complete game.

The Jays then beat Glendale 4-3. Michael Skinner had two hits and an RBI, and Mason Hansen doubled and drove in a run. Cade Galbraith was the winning pitcher, throwing a complete game.

Jefferson City’s JV (6-4) plays Lebanon on Tuesday.