Leopold upsets Saxony 4-3

LEOPOLD — Cody Van De Ven's curveball was sharp Wednesday against Saxony Lutheran.

And the defense behind him looked even better.

Van De Ven, a senior, tossed six strong innings and Wildcats shortstop Ryan Davis made two crucial defensive plays to lead Leopold to a 4-3 home win over the Crusaders.

"This is probably the biggest win of my senior year," Van De Ven said. "This is probably the biggest win of my high school career."

Van De Ven tossed six plus innings, striking out seven Saxony batters while walking three and hitting one. He allowed three runs. One was unearned. He exited the game in the seventh ahead 3-1 with no outs and two runners on base. Both those runners eventually scored to tie it, but Leopold scored a run in the seventh on a Crusaders error.

Van De Ven forced Saxony to hit the ball on the ground. Six of the first nine outs he recorded were on ground balls.

"That's probably the best I've felt out there," Van De Ven said. "My curveball was looking pretty good. I was hitting my spots like I wanted to and trying to keep them off balance a little bit. They were hitting ground balls and my defense was there to pick me up. ... The curveball was breaking pretty hard today."

KIT DOYLE ~ kdoyle@semissourian.com Crusaders third baseman Bryant Steffens watched Leopold's John Bohnsack safely slide into third after a wild pitch during the bottom of the seventh inning Wednesday at Leopold. Bohnsack later would score the game-winning run on an error.

Van De Ven has been pitching for the Wildcats for all four years of high school. He said he thought his control Wednesday was the best it has been all season.

Leopold catcher Wade Wiseman said it was important for Van De Ven to have his curveball working well against a strong Saxony lineup.

"If his curveball had not been working, he would have thrown straight heat and they would have turned on it eventually," Wiseman said. "I don't think we would have won the game if his curveball hadn't been the way it was. Today he had it. I've seen him do it in practice and everything, but today he put it into a game situation."

First-year Leopold coach Brandon Robinson added about Van De Ven: "We kind of just build off him. He's kind of our spark plug. He's tremendously smart. He's going to give you everything he's got every day."

KIT DOYLE ~ kdoyle@semissourian.com Saxony Lutheran senior Max Wieser (35) beat the throw to Leopold shortstop Ryan Davis for a stolen base Wednesday, April 30, 2008, in Leopold.

While the senior hurler kept the Crusaders off the scoreboard, Leopold grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI single by Clayton Stoverink.

"Getting ahead in the first inning, that's big against a good team like Saxony Lutheran," Van De Ven said. "When you get ahead quick, that puts them down a little bit."

Leopold (7-7) jumped ahead 2-0 in the third inning when Saxony shortstop Chris Roth bobbled a ball hit to him off the bat of Wiseman with the bases loaded.

Saxony (12-5) pushed across a run on an error by Davis to make it 2-1. But Davis regrouped later to make two strong plays to keep it a one-run game.

Leopold pitcher Cody Van De Ven delivered against Saxony Lutheran during Wednesday's game.

Davis charged and cleanly fielded a slow grounder hit just past the mound and threw to first for the out to end the fifth with two runners in scoring position. With the Crusaders threatening with two outs in the sixth, Davis went to his left to grab a hard bouncer off the bat of Chad Bachmann. He threw a ball in the dirt, but it was scooped at first by Stoverink for the final out of the inning.

"I had an error in the first couple innings and tried to come back and do the best I could," Davis said.

Robinson added: "Those were two huge plays. Probably two game-saving plays because there were two outs with runners in scoring position and if those balls get through, they are going to score. And he just made some great plays. You've got to credit Clayton Stoverink at first base — those were tough hops."

Leopold plated an insurance run on a walk and a couple of Saxony errors in the sixth to make it 3-1.

Saxony rallied to tie it 3-3 in the top of the seventh. Max Wieser led off with a hit then Roth walked to chase Van De Ven.

Darren VanGennip came in to pitch. The Crusaders eventually scored on a sacrifice fly and an RBI ground out.

"I told them we played too hard to lose this game," Robinson said, discussing what he told his team after Saxony tied it.

Freshman John Bohnsack stroked a double to deep left-center field to begin the bottom of the seventh for Leopold.

"All year he's just been incredible," Robinson said. "And he showed why he bats No. 2, and why I have a lot of confidence with him up there. He drills one in the gap and gets into scoring position."

Bohnsack advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored the game-winning run when Stoverink grounded to Roth, who again bobbled.

"We knew they were going to come back, so we were on our toes," Van De Ven said. "They're a good team. They're going to come back in a game like this, so luckily we stopped them before it got to be too much. And we came back and won it in the bottom half."

Saxony 000 100 2 — 3 7 5

Leopold 101 001 1 — 4 7 1

WP — Darren VanGennip (2-2). LP — Garrett Fritsche (3-1). 2B — John Bohnsack (L). Multiple hits — Saxony: Max Wieser 2-4, Fritsche 2-3; Leopold: Bohnsack 2-4, Van De Ven 3-3. Records — Saxony 12-5, Leopold 7-7.