Pitching and defense helped protect an early lead and pushed the Jefferson City Renegades to a 4-2 win Sunday night against the St. Joseph Mustangs in MINK League play at Vivion Field.
Ty Wilmsmeyer was the starting pitcher and designated hitter for the Renegades, pitching six innings of one-run ball and scoring a run on offense while picking up the win on the mound.
“He’s as good of a baseball player as we have had in this program,” Renegades coach Mike DeMilia said. “He’s not flashy, he doesn’t do anything that makes you ‘ooh’ and ‘aah,’ he’s just solid every day. He shows up, he works hard and he competes. That’s his biggest attribute, he competes so hard.
“I felt like having him in the lineup and pitching was the right choice.”
Wilmsmeyer, who was the starting center fielder for Missouri this spring, is looking to make the move to a two-way player for the Tigers next season and moved to 2-0 on the mound in the MINK League while lowering his season ERA to 2.40.
“That’s the best he’s pitched, every outing he has been better,” DeMilia said. “To get him out there and continually get better and competing against a really good offense, it was incredible.”
Jefferson City made sure Wilmsmeyer had a lead early Sunday.
Adonis Forte led off the bottom of the first inning with a single to left-center field and Wilmsmeyer followed by drawing a walk. The next batter, Jack Matousek, found an 0-2 pitch in the zone and drove it into right-center field for a two-RBI double to put the Renegades in front.
“Anytime you get off to a good start, especially against a good team, that’s huge. We kind of put them behind the eight ball right away,” DeMilia said. “Anytime you can play with a lead it is a heck of a lot easier.”
The Mustangs were able to cut the lead in half in the third inning when a two-out walk came around to score on a double by Dylan Carey.
Jefferson City got the run right back in the bottom half of the inning. Jackson Lovich got ahold of a first-pitch fastball and drove it over the left-field fence with two outs for a solo home run, his first of the season.
“He was playing high school ball a month ago against good competition, but not the competition he’s facing now. It’s a little faster, the pitchers are a little better,” DeMilia said. “He has a reputation, too. People know that he’s going to Mizzou and that he’s done some good things. People are pitching him tough, they aren’t just serving him fastballs. They are pitching him like he’s a college player already. He’s getting better every day and it’ll be exciting to see where he is in a couple of weeks.”
The score remained 3-1 until the top of the seventh inning.
Back-to-back walks started the inning for the Mustangs and forced DeMilia’s hand to the bullpen as he brought in Tanner Schmitz to deal with the jam.
A wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position with no outs before Schmitz got Tyler Petrosino to groundout softly to third base and keep the runners put. Noah Bodenhousen was able to drop a bloop double into right field to bring home a run as the next batter, but Schmitz picked up a called third strike and a fly out to center field to get out of the jam and keep the Renegades’ 3-2 lead.
“It’s what he always does,” DeMilia said. “He’s as competitive as anybody, he’s not afraid of the moment and he pitches through adversity. That’s one of the biggest qualities for a quality pitcher is to be able to handle the mental part and handle adversity. He understands who he is, he knows he doesn’t throw real hard, and he does what he has to do to get people out. He’s done an amazing job for us.”
Matousek got the run right back in the bottom of the inning by driving a 1-2 pitch back up the middle for a single, driving in Cole Wagner for his third RBI of the game.
Schmitz stayed in for the final nine outs to collect the save, but it didn’t come easily in the ninth.
An error started out the top of the ninth and a walk followed to put two runners on with nobody out. A sacrifice bunt moved the potential tying-run into scoring position, but TJ Racherbaumer was able to back pick Jax Himel at third base to pick up the second out and break any momentum St. Joseph (13-8) had built. Schmitz induced a routine fly ball to left field to close it out and finish his save.
“That was planned between TJ and Jackson (Lovich),” DeMilia said. “Jackson was playing kind of far off the bag and the guy got a pretty big lead at third, and TJ just came out firing. That was something not from the bench, but between those two for sure.”
The Renegades (9-9), who are off today, will look to build off their three-game winning streak when they travel Tuesday to St. Joseph for a makeup game with the Mustangs after their first meeting was rained out June 11. The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start.