RANDY HISNER
WZBD.com
When pitchers throw strikes and fielders make plays, baseball games don’t take very long, and that’s what happened Wednesday as the visiting Homestead Spartans edged the Adams Central Flying Jets, 2-1, in just an hour and twenty minutes.
The Spartans’ Alex Graber and the Jets’ Dakota Perry locked up in a pitchers’ duel, both pitching very effectively, though with different styles. Graber relied on strikeouts, whiffing 14 Jets, while Perry struck out only two and leaned on his defense, which turned four double plays. Graber walked only two, Perry none.
The Spartans (14-9) played errorless ball. The Jets (16-8) had only two errors, but they were costly, leading to both Homestead runs in the fourth inning.
In that key inning, Graber led off with a groundout to third baseman Keagen Combs, but then Spartan DH Cole Kintz reached base on shortstop Ryan Tester’s throwing error. Johnnie Ankenbruck followed with a single to right, sending Kintz to third. Ankenbruck’s courtesy runner, Luke Riha, took second uncontested on the first pitch to Brady Minnick. Minnick then grounded to Tester, whose only play was to first, as Kintz scored the first run of the game, with Riha advancing to third. He scored Homestead’s second run when Combs bobbled Zane Wirges’s two-out grounder.
The score remained 2-0 through five. The hard-throwing Graber held down the Jets by mixing his fastball with change-ups and sharp-breaking sliders, allowing no hits and only one runner, on a first-inning walk to Ethan Funk.
But the Jets rallied in the sixth. Lawson Deathe walked with one out, and Jack Hamilton sent him to second with a single to right. Funk’s ground ball to short resulted in a force out at second, Deathe moving to third on the play. When Graber’s first pitch to Trevor Currie sailed out of catcher Ankenbruck’s reach, Deathe dashed home with what turned out to be the Jets’ only run. With two out, Ankenbruck threw behind Funk at second, but Funk escaped the pickoff and made it to third. Currie then hit a screaming line drive right to Homestead third baseman Aiden Phillips for the third out.
Adams Central coach Josh Foster knew that bad luck on Currie’s rocket shot cost the Jets. “Currie’s line drive, if it’s another three feet, that gets through and it’s a 2-2 game,” he said.
Perry kept mowing down the Spartans, giving up only three singles after the fourth inning, and two of those were erased on double plays. The first one came after Will Karshner hit a one-out single in the fifth. The next batter, Caleb Bradford, hit a grounder to first baseman Currie’s right. Currie fielded it, threw to Tester at second, and Tester fired to Perry at first for the rare 3-6-1 double play.
Second baseman Ethan Funk nabbed Ankenbruck’s liner in the sixth and doubled off Kintz at first for the Jets’ fourth double play of the game.
Tester led off the seventh with a single, but Graber got Perry to hit into a fielder’s choice and then struck out Cade Van De Weg and Combs to end the game.
Homestead coach Nick Byall appreciates what he’s got in Graber. “He’s been phenomenal for us all year,” he said. “He’s been kind of our workhorse. He’s kept us in games when we haven’t been able to score runs; he’s been the guy to hold the line and get us to where we need to go.”
Graber’s command of his pitches, according to Byall, is no accident. “He works on everything,” he said. “He’s trying to perfect his craft, and you love it because he goes out and competes every time and tries to mix it up. He comes out with a plan; he’s not just out there chucking it like a young kid.”
“Their coach told me before the game that he (Graber) is pretty darn good, and he was,” said Foster. “But I think Dakota Perry matched him step-for-step, for the most part—78 pitches, a complete game. He pitched to contact, and we turned four double plays, which is big, especially against a great opponent like that.”
Perry gave up seven hits—two each to Ankenbruck and Karshner—and no earned runs. Graber yielded only two hits and one earned run.
The Jets will host Blackford Thursday at 5:00 P.M.
About the Author
