Chaffee's Dooley silences Meadow Heights

~ The Chaffee sophomore limited the Panthers to three hits in a 6-1 victory.

CHAFFEE -- After pitcher Andrew Dooley allowed a leadoff double in the sixth inning, his coaches yelled to him from the dugout to bear down and not allow the runner to score.

Dooley did just that. He struck out the next two batters, then got ahead in the count to the fourth hitter before catcher Trevor Cannon picked the runner off second base.

Dooley, who was making his second start this spring after missing time earlier in the season with an injury, fired a complete-game three-hitter against Meadow Heights on Monday.

Dooley pitched himself out of a few jams, and Hunter Thomason went 2-for-3, including smashing a double and driving in two runs, as the Red Devils beat the Panthers 6-1.

Chaffee second baseman Aaron Horrell throws to first to complete a double play after forcing out Meadow Heights' Dustin Hubler during the second inning Monday at Chaffee. (Fred Lynch)

Dooley allowed 12 baserunners, including one in every inning except the seventh, but only surrendered one run.

"I just kept control of the ball and kept throwing strikes and not many balls," Dooley said about his approach when Meadow Heights had runners on base. "I laid off the offspeed pitches [after hitting a few batters] and just threw fastballs and challenged the hitters and made them hit it."

Dooley improved to 2-0. He also beat Leopold on April 21, when he allowed one hit over five innings.

"His arm, it's came along so far," Cannon said of Dooley. "They were saying he wasn't even going to pitch [this season] at the beginning of the year."

Dooley, a sophomore, did not throw during the preseason. He was shut down for the first four weeks because of pain in his back. He finally began to work out on the mound earlier this month. He made a pair of relief appearances before making his first start against Leopold.

"It really wasn't as much his arm as he was having some back pain below the scapula in the back," Chaffee coach Brian Horrell said. "I think it was just kind of bursitis. But it worked its way out. Since he's been throwing, he's gotten a little arm soreness, but his back is a lot better. It's not flaring up. He plays quite a bit in the summer. He plays on a couple teams and he plays on one that went deep into the playoffs and he throws quite a bit, so it might have been a carryover. We start trying to get their arms in shape around Christmas time, and even around Christmas time, he wasn't throwing like the other pitchers because of the back troubles."

Dooley was on a pitch count limit of about 85. His count was at about 56 pitches after five innings, so Horrell let the sophomore toss the final two innings.

"He looked stronger at the end of the game," Horrell said. "We've kind of got him on a pitch count. ... We're hoping to keep him healthy for districts."

Dooley, whose cousin is former Oran High School standout pitcher Steven Dooley, who graduated in 2008, said he did not know much about the Meadow Heights (4-5) lineup entering Monday's contest, but he did play with two of their hitters, Cody Kennedy and Trevor Hotop, on a Senior Babe Ruth team two years ago. This is Dooley's second year as a varsity starting pitcher.

He said his arm was hurting him some in the early innings against the Panthers, but in the third, he took some pain medicine, which started to take effect in the fourth.

The sophomore hit a Panthers batter in each of the first three innings. He also gave up two walks in the fourth after getting two quick outs.

"We had one or two runners on base every inning," Panthers coach Tim Smith said. "I thought we got on base pretty good. I thought we made contact. But we've got to be more aggressive. Their kid was out there throwing strikes, and when someone is out there throwing strikes, you've got to go up there ready to hit. ... He's a good pitcher, but we could've hit him."

The Red Devils (7-5) hitters got an early lead off Meadow Heights hurler Matt Groves. Alex Davie singled to start the bottom of the first inning, and Aaron Horrell was then hit by a pitch. Both runners moved up a base on a pitch that got past catcher Zac Hotop. Thomason drove home Davie and Horrell on a sharp single to right field.

"Today we mostly put the ball in play and whenever there was people on base," Thomason said. "I knew it was my job to get them in. It was a full count or something like that and he threw me a curveball and I just kept my eye on it and hit it opposite field."

Meadow Hts. 000 010 0 -- 1 3 2

Chaffee 201 120 x -- 6 5 4

WP -- Andrew Williams, 2-0. LP -- Matt Groves, 0-2. 2B -- Hunter Thomason (C), Zac Hotop (MH), Matt Groves (MH). Multiple hits -- Chaffee: Thomason 2-3, Groves 2-4. Records -- Chaffee 7-5, Meadow Heights 4-5.