In the first game of the Jefferson City Renegades' intrasquad scrimmage Wednesday, it seemed like nothing could go wrong for the White squad in a 6-0 win.
With former Helias and current Columbia College pitcher Josiah Imhoff starting, the White squad had three pitchers combine to throw a two-hitter, and both hits came with two out in the top of the seventh, the final inning. Imhoff threw two innings and allowed just two balls out of the infield, both flyouts, while striking out two and walking one.
"I felt pretty good," Imhoff said afterward. "It felt good to be out here and to get to play baseball during the summer, because I didn't know what was going to happen. So every outing I appreciate."
Alec Kubik threw two clean innings, striking out four, and Lane Threlkeld finished the game off with three innings of relief. Their pitching allowed the White team's hitters to settle in quickly.
After a leadoff walk in the bottom of the first by Duffin Makings, former Fatima standout Josef Keilholz shattered his bat at the handle on a single, then former Jefferson City Jay Hayden Hirschvogel doubled over the head of the left fielder to put his team ahead 1-0. Isaiah Pani followed with an RBI groundout to score Keilholz and give the White team a 2-0 lead after one inning.
The White squad batted around in the second, but with each team using just seven hitters in its lineup and a pair of fielder's choices, including by Keilholz using a new bat, White scored just one run and stranded three.
Keilholz quickly got used to the new piece of timber, though.
After a leadoff single by Peyton Keathley in the bottom of the third and then a walk by Makings, Keilholz crushed a three-run homer to dead pull in right, more than 340 feet, the first of the "season" for the Renegades, to make it 6-0.
"That was actually a team bat. The team has bats they bring in case somebody doesn't have a wood bat, and that's the one I used," Keilholz said after the game. "I didn't want to break anybody else's, so I just used the team's.
"Whenever I swung and kind of saw it get up there, I was like, it might have a chance, but it just kind of felt like a big pop fly. But it felt good. This is the first home run I've hit here at Vivion."
So does blasting a home run with the team bat mean it's his, now?
"No, no it's still the team's," Keilholz said with a laugh. "Hopefully it's there next year, though, when I play for them."