Bluefield – Pitching and defense are preached because they’re aspects of baseball you can usually rely on.
Bluefield excelled in both phases to open sectional tournament play Monday and it paid dividends.
Pitcher Caleb Fuller allowed just one hit in a complete-game shutout as the No. 2-seeded Beavers bested No. 3 Wyoming East 7-0 at Bowen Field.
With the win Bluefield advances to the winners bracket where it will face No. 1 PikeView on Tuesday at PikeView.
Fuller, who struck out eight in his standout performance, didn’t hog the credit and rightfully so. His defense committed just one error on 15 balls put in play with shortstop Davis Rockness scooping everything hit his way.
“My teammates did a great job backing me up,” Fuller said. “They didn’t make any errors hardly and they were clean on their throws. They just played a solid game in the field behind me and really backed me up.”
For Wyoming East it was the opposite.
Hurler Zach Hunt pitched well enough, surrendering four runs while holding the Beavers at bay for most of his start but the five errors committed in the field behind him compounded East’s offensive struggles.
“We gave up two unearned in the sixth but we’ve got a couple young kids out there,” East assistant coach Kevin Hedinger said.
The defensive struggles were there from the jump for East. After Bryson Redmond led off the bottom of the first with a single for Bluefield, an attempt to nail him at second on a comebacker from Rockness to Hunt bounced into centerfield. The throw from centerfield then sailed into the fence on the third base side allowing Redmond to trot home as Rockness advanced to second.
Fuller followed with a single and Hunter Harmon scored Rockness with a sacrifice fly to make it a 2-0 game and cap a shaky inning.
The good news for the Warriors was over the next three innings they kept Bluefield at bay and even generated their own scoring opportunities. Still they couldn’t solve Fuller who buckled down when he needed to.
A single and Bluefield’s only error of the game allowed Jacob Howard and Hunt to reach base to open the fourth inning, bringing up the cleanup spots. But the promising start never materialized into runs with Fuller fanning the No. 4 and 5 batters and inducing a flyout to end East’s only realistic shot of scoring.
“I thought about bunting but we had our cleanup guy up,” Hedinger said. “We go K, K and a weak ball. Somebody’s got to pick up and get a hit on something like that. I thought we battled. (Fuller) got a couple of guys at the bottom of the order with his breaking ball but the guys at the top put the bat on him, we just didn’t drive it really hard.”
The squandered opportunities haunted East in the bottom of the fifth when Bluefield capitalized on a pair of errors on the same play to extend its lead to 3-0. A Garrett Hicks single and Anthony Buzzo walk set the stage for Kam’Ron Gore who stroked a single to plate Hicks.
“We preach all the time that when you get two strikes it has to be a different kind of swing,” Bluefield head coach Jimmy Redmond said. “Obviously you’re not going to try and drive the ball out of the ballpark but you’re still going to have a pretty good swing. We put the ball in play and made things happen. Bryson was 4 for 4 and Caleb was 2 for 4 so we had a couple kids with multiple hits and it was good to get (Redmond) behind the plate. He hasn’t been back there since the beginning of the year. Just by blocking and framing he helps us.”
Redmond, Rockness and Fuller led the charge in the bottom of the sixth when the Beavers put the finishing touches on their victory. All three scored runs in the frame with Fuller and Landon Crane collecting RBIs.
The Warriors went quietly in the top of the seventh, the fifth inning in which they were retired in order.
“I like to work my curveball,” Fuller said. “I don’t really have that fast of a fastball and it’s just to keep them honest. I like to throw more off-speed.”
“Caleb, when he’s on he’s a pretty tough pitcher especially when he can mix it up,” Redmond said. “He located and threw where he wanted. If I called it up in the zone he hit it up in the zone. He could throw off-speed behind in the count and just located really well. He had a good velocity and good mix.”
Bluefield will seek a spot in the championship game when it travels to PikeView on Tuesday. The Panthers, who overcame an 8-3 deficit against No. 4 Westside, will have ace Nathan Riffe available to pitch as he only threw 13 pitches in relief Monday.
Bluefield will have its own ace in Hunter Harmon who wasn’t called upon to pitch in Monday’s victory.
Wyoming East will host Westside in an elimination game with freshman Miken Smyth likely to take the mound.
“He didn’t start the year as our No. 1 but he probably is now,” Hedinger said of Smyth. “He’s a freshman but he’s come along for us and has thrown about 50 innings.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
