RANDY HISNER
WZBD.com
Peru senior Ryne Butt threw a four-hitter, striking out 11 and walking only one, to lead the Tigers to a 9-0 rout of the Adams Central Flying Jets in the opening round of the Howard County Invitational Baseball Tournament Friday at Eastern High School.
Peru coach Josh Ulery was pleased with Butt’s excellent pitching performance in his team’s season opener. “We wanted to get off to a great start and have good senior leadership on the mound,” he said. “Fantastic job by him.”
Adams Central coach Josh Foster agreed. “The thing I noticed about him is he took ownership of the mound,” he praised. “You could see his confidence from the first pitch to the last pitch.”
Butt dominated the Jets (0-2), allowing only three baserunners to advance to scoring position and yielding just one extra base hit, a double to the right-field corner by Adams Central starting pitcher Cade Van De Weg in the first inning.
The Tigers wasted no time getting Van De Weg into trouble on the mound in the bottom of the first. Leadoff hitter Gavin Eldridge tripled to the right field corner, and Isaac Bradley followed with a bunt single, Eldridge holding at third. Then Van De Weg hit Reis Bellar to load the bases with no outs. Cleanup hitter Lucas Musser hit a grounder to Carson Ross at first, but when Ross threw home for the force out, catcher Reece Hammond dropped the ball, allowing the Tigers’ first run.
Peru first baseman Bryce Hill kept the rally alive with with a sharp single to center, driving in Brayley and Bellar to make it 3-0. Van De Weg quickly recovered, striking out three of the next four hitters to end the inning, but the damage was done, the Tigers having scored more than enough runs to back the stellar pitching of Butt.
In the second inning, Musser drove a 1-0 pitch over the right-field fence with Brayley on base to increase the lead to 5-0.
Van De Weg settled down, striking out five in the next two innings and giving up just one run on Musser’s two-out RBI triple in the fourth.
Jacob Miller took over on the mound for the Jets and pitched a scoreless fifth before walking the bases loaded with no outs in the sixth. Foster brought in freshman Barrett Collier to relieve him. Collier got Musser to pop up to first, but Hill singled to left to drive in a run, and another scored on a throwing error from the outfield, putting the Tigers up 8-0. Collier allowed their final run on a balk.
Foster knows he needs Van De Weg to lead his pitching staff even though he has struggled in his first two starts. “We’re going to continue to lean on him,” Foster said. “I think just coming out of basketball we haven’t had as many bullpens as he likes. He’s not as sharp as he will be.”
Van De Weg did have some bright spots, using his impressive velocity and sharp curve to strike out nine in four innings.
Foster pointed out that he has a relatively inexperienced team—only three returning players had significant varsity at-bats last year—and that the early spring weather has not been conducive to preparing his squad for varsity competition. “We’ve practiced outside only four times,” he said. “We weren’t able to get on our field at all this week, which was brutal coming into this tournament. But it’s a process, and hopefully we’ll get there.”
In addition to Van De Weg’s double, the Jets got two singles from Miller and one from Joey Everett.
The Jets were slated to play Taylor at Northwestern High School Saturday at 12:30 in the losers’ bracket of the tournament.
Jets split Saturday games
Adams Central dominated Taylor in a mercy rule, shortened contest Saturday afternoon, winning 15-2.
Joey Everett was a perfect 3-for-3 with three RBI.
Ethan Funk and Reece Hammond each had two hits to help the Jets score their first victory of the year.
Jamison Roach threw four no-hit innings, striking out eight and walking four. Both runs he allowed were unearned.
Lawson Deathe struck out one in a perfect inning of relief.
In the final contest of the tournament for coach Foster’s young team, the Jets were defeated 10-7 by Northwestern.
Ethan Funk took the loss, despite striking out nine batters.
Max Byerly led the Jets with two hits.
