Bodenstab pitches first complete game for Capital City in win against Cuba

Capital City pitcher Taggert Bodenstab throws a warmup pitch to catcher Brock Miles before Tuesday's game against Cuba at Capital City High School.
Capital City pitcher Taggert Bodenstab throws a warmup pitch to catcher Brock Miles before Tuesday's game against Cuba at Capital City High School.

Even as the final week of the regular season begins, the Capital City baseball team is still adding to its list of firsts in its inaugural season.

Taggert Bodenstab pitched the Cavaliers' first complete game Tuesday, going the distance in Capital City's 6-2 win against the Cuba Wildcats at Capital City High School.

"He asked me last week, he said he wanted this game," Capital City coach Brett Skinner said of his junior left-hander. "I love pitchers that have confidence, and he filled up the zone well."

Bodenstab reached his pitch-count limit of 105 on his last batter of the game, but he prevented the Cavaliers from having to go to their bullpen by striking out Cuba's Levi Jones to end the game.

Bodenstab allowed just two runs on two hits, walking three and striking out 11, tying a career-high.

"It was a great outing," Skinner said.

Bodenstab was at 56 pitches through three innings, but an eight-pitch fourth inning and a 10-pitch sixth inning kept his pitch count low enough to go the full seven innings.

"You have to be efficient, and he was getting ahead in counts," Skinner said. "He was putting them away quickly instead of letting them hang around."

He was also getting big plays from his defense. Shortstop Noah Nicklas kept the no-hitter intact in the fourth inning with a nice play up the middle to rob Cuba's Garret Sellers of a single.

"That was huge, he makes some flashy plays," Skinner said. "It's scary, because he's only a freshman."

Carlos Ayala also made a key play in the seventh inning. A ground ball off the bat of Joel Sanders hit the heel of Ayala's glove and bounced up, but he was able to grab the ball and throw it across the diamond to beat Sanders by a step for the out.

Had Sanders reached base, Bodenstab likely would've hit his pitch count limit before recording the third out.

"All the little things like that have to come together for it to all happen," Skinner said.

Tuesday was Bodenstab's second-longest outing of the season. He pitched 7 innings against Sedalia Smith-Cotton on April 21, but he was unable to finish the eighth inning in the 2-0 loss.

Sanders broke up Bodenstab's bid for Capital City's first-ever no-hitter with a one-out single down the left-field line in the top of the fifth inning.

"That thought ran through my head right before that hit, that he had a no-hitter going," Skinner said. "I blame myself."

Jones followed that with an infield single for Cuba's other hit.

Capital City's offense managed just three hits in the win, but the Cavaliers were the benefactors of seven Cuba errors. Seven of Capital City's nine hitters reached base at least two times in the win.

Simply putting the ball in play Tuesday paid off for the Cavaliers.

"I told the players that we did to Cuba what teams have been doing to us all year long, taking advantage of walks and errors," Skinner said. "It was good to be on the other end of that.

"Some of that was to our credit. Some of them were hard-hit balls and were hard plays. Good things do happen when you put a barrel on the ball."

Brock Miles singled and scored in the second inning for Capital City. The Cavaliers added three more runs in the third without a hit to take a 4-1 lead.

Capital City scored its final two runs in the fourth.

Bodenstab reached on an infield single in the third and Trey Jennings doubled to left field in the sixth for the Cavaliers' other hits.

"Our approaches are getting there," Skinner said. "We're getting experience and understanding the strike zone. We're learning."

Sanders walked six batters in four innings in a losing effort on the mound for Cuba (6-13).

Capital City (4-18) will finish the regular season Thursday at home against Centralia. First pitch is at 5 p.m.