Cade Van De Weg captured his fourth win of the season and lowered his ERA to a sparkling 1.60 as he shut out the Jay County Patriots on just three hits for a 3-0 win in the ACAC Thursday night in Portland.
The senior lefty had to wait an extra hour to take the mound as the game was delayed by wet conditions, but once he got started, the Patriots were never able to rattle him. He struck out twelve and walked two.
The only real rally for Jay County came in the third and that was only enough to put runners on second and first with two outs. Van De Weg got Gavin Byrum to swing and miss to end the inning.
The Jets took the lead in the third with a rally that started with a single by Max Byerly. Joey Everett reached on an error in the wind and that put two on in scoring position for Ethan Funk, who singled to center to make it 2-0.
Byerly reached second on an error leading off the seventh inning, then stole third and came home to make it 3-0 on a sacrifice fly to left from Everett.
Down to their last at-bats, Jay County struggled in the seventh, with Van De Weg setting down this tenth and eleventh batters in a row to get to one out away from victory. He then issued his second walk to Joseph Geesaman and allowed Brady Jetmore to reach on an error, but he struck out Grant Wendel to end the game.
It was the third ACAC win in eight days for the Jets, who seemed destined to play for the ACAC title next week, beginning with a contest at Bluffton Tuesday and then at home against Heritage Thursday.
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