Saxony Lutheran baseball finds way to win 'ugly,' drops Zalma in Oak Ridge tourney

The Saxony Lutheran baseball team spent several minutes perched near the batting cages at the Crusaders’ home field following their game against Zalma on Friday afternoon in the Oak Ridge Invitational.

Coach Paul Sander and his squad were disappointed in the continued lack of hitting and made sure to discuss that during their postgame chat, but Sander also made sure his guys understood that he was pleased they were able to grind out a 5-1 victory over the visiting Bulldogs.

“You just can’t always rely on that,” Sander said of the hitting. “Sometimes you’ve just got to win a little ugly. Winning was a little ugly today, but it still counts.”

The Crusaders advance to face Woodland in the third-place game of the tournament, which will be played at 11 a.m. this morning at Oak Ridge.

Saxony was limited to three hits by the Bulldogs, but used a three-run fifth inning to take its first and final lead of the game.

Leadoff hitter and third baseman Dustin Lorenz drew a one-out walk and pitcher Tyler Amos was hit in the back by a pitch before a wild pitch allowed them to advance to second and third.

Ball four to catcher Paris Johnson was in the dirt for a wild pitch that scored Lorenz to make it 2-1 Saxony. Amos made it to third and Johnson reached second on the play. Amos then scored on a groundout to first and Johnson scored on another wild pitch to make it 4-1 after five innings.

“We told them that, ‘We’re going to take a few pitches and work some counts, go deeper in the count and see if we can get a better pitch to hit or see if we can coax a walk. Just get some traffic,’” Sander said. “You have to create traffic on the bases and the last two innings we improved at that.”

The Crusaders added a run in the sixth. Designated hitter Andrew Bohnert reached on a leadoff error after the first baseman dropped a throw from third. Bohnert was then bunted to second.

Shortstop Jakoata Walther grounded to first and the Bulldogs tried to throw home, but Bohnert scored as Walther reached.

Zalma plated a run in the top of the second for an early 1-0 lead. Right fielder Dusty Daniels singled to right and stole second before Saxony starter Tyler Amos struck out a pair.

Howard singled to center and Daniels scored when the ball was booted in the outfield.

The Crusaders tied it up in the home half of the inning. Bohnert and left fielder Jake Wyatt hit back-to-back one-out singles before Walter beat out a throw at first after a potential double-play ball was dropped at short to load the bases. Right fielder Jacob Stueve grounded to the second baseman for the force out at second, but drove in Bohnert.

Zalma loaded the bases in the fourth and fifth innings and had runners on second and third with the game tied at 1 in the third inning, but were unable to scratch out a run.

The Crusaders turned a 6-3 double play to end the fourth, and a groundout to third ended the fifth. Amos struck out the side looking in the sixth and recorded two more Ks in the seventh.

Sander was impressed with how Amos kept his composure in those situations. He allowed eight hits in seven innings of work. He walked a pair and struck out 10.

“He threw a whole lot more off speed stuff today than normal. He probably didn’t have as good a fastball as he normally has in a game. Even though he’s a junior and our starting shortstop, he’s kind of a young pitcher because he hasn’t pitched that much up until this year, so he’s kind of learning but he’s an excellent athlete and a good player, and I thought he got better as the game went on,” Sander said.

“He got in the flow. What we want him to do is get the ball back and not take so much time on the mound — get it and get a rhythm and throw it again. He did that much better and then he located a lot more curveballs in the second half of the game.”

Dallan Stotts took the loss the on the mound for the Bulldogs. He allowed three hits, walked four and struck out seven.

“Earlier in the year we were sort of on a roll, like turning on the water faucet, and that’s not always going to be like that in baseball,” Sander said of the offense. “You’re going to have games where it just doesn’t work and so we’re going to go out tomorrow and see maybe if we can get a ball in the gap or something early in the game and then it’s kind of contagious, hopefully. That’s what we’re hoping for is for them just to keep battling and we’ll get a couple nice hits and then maybe we’ll get back in the mode of hitting the ball better.”

Zalma 010 000 0 — 1 8 2

Saxony 010 031 X — 5 3 3

WP — Tyler Amos. LP — Dallan Stotts. 2B — Brent Overbey (Z). Multiple hits — Zalma: Overbey 2-4, Zach Howard 2-3.