The Jefferson City Jays are glad to have their hard-throwing lefty back.
"Jacob Roettgen, woo!" Jefferson City coach Kyle Lasley said.
Roettgen pitched a complete game Saturday morning against the Lee's Summit Tigers, limiting them to two hits in a 5-1 victory in the Columbia Tournament at Vivion Field.
"Probably the best pitching performance I've seen out of him in his high school career," Lasley said of the senior who's missed time on the mound because of an injury. "He was just locked in. Kept his pitch count down, got after guys. Joe (Hoerchler) called a really good game behind the plate. And got him some run support and that was the end of it."
Jefferson City capped off the tournament later Saturday with its second victory in as many days against the Rolla Bulldogs, winning 12-3 thanks to a pair of five-run innings.
An RBI single from Roettgen put the Jays ahead 2-0 and Wyatt Fischer followed with a double to the right-field corner to score two more runs.
A Lucas Caudle grounder to left field resulted in an RBI single, making it 5-0.
Fischer and Caudle got their hits on the first pitch they saw.
"It's more or less them just getting pitches early in the count they can hit," Lasley said. " I told the guys they've just got to get their hacks in and don't get lazy with the swings."
The Jays loaded the bases with two outs in the second to chase starting pitcher Luke Seest.
Jeremy Parks drove the first pitch from Jacob Wood into center field for an RBI single.
Caudle later bounced a hard grounder to left field to score two more runs and Eli Moreland tacked on an RBI single to left for a 10-0 lead.
Joey Spinaio walked the first batter he faced to load the bases, but got out of the inning with a flyout.
It was a good game all around for Caudle, who finished off a four-RBI performance with a sacrifice fly in the sixth and retired the final seven batters he faced for complete game on the mound.
The Bulldogs got on base against Caudle in the first five innings, but they stranded seven runners in scoring position.
"He's not a guy that's overpowering by any means," Lasley said of Caudle, who strike out five, walked one and allowed seven hits and one earned run. "He's kind of the exact opposite of Jacob but he's going to make guys put the ball in play, and defensively we've just got to make plays behind him and he did that."
Roettgen struck out eight and walked none against Lee's Summit.
Jefferson City got three seven-inning outings from pitchers in the five-game tournament, including Case Hager in a 1-0 defeat against Francis Howell on Friday.
"It's good to see. We need more of that," Lasley said.
The Jays tallied 21 hits Saturday, including three singles from Jacob Duke against Rolla. Parks, Caudle and Moreland each had two hits. Taylor Hopkins had two of Jefferson City's six hits against Lee's Summit.
Jefferson City (12-5) and Rolla (10-9) will complete the three-game season series Wednesday in Rolla.
Jefferson City's next home game is Saturday in a doubleheader against St. Thomas Aquinas out of Overland Park, Kan.