Experience on the mound can make the difference in any game, especially a playoff game. Wheelersburg had that Wednesday.
Senior Andrew Elliott struck out 10 batters to lead the Wheelersburg Pirates to a 5-2 victory over the Piketon Redstreaks in a Division III semifinal game at Athens High School.
Elliott threw a complete game, surrendering just two runs on two hits. His control was strong, as he had just one walk and one balk along with his ten strikeouts.
“I kept getting in the strike zone and all my stuff was working. Everybody got behind me,” Elliott said.
Elliott struggled in the second inning but bounced back after that. In the final five innings, he retired 14 of 15 batters he faced. Of those 15 batters, he struck out eight.
Pitching in the playoffs is not an unfamiliar place for Elliott.
“He’s one of our seniors who has been through the wars with us. He pitched our semifinal game here last year,” Wheelersburg head coach Michael Estep said.
On the other side, it was freshman Zach Farmer pitching for Piketon. Farmer had both good and bad moments, striking out six but walking eight, balking twice and throwing three wild pitches.
Piketon head coach Gene Bumgardner knew what he was getting sending out the freshman.
“He’s a first team All-District player. Just putting him in that situation, if I had to do it all over again, I would do it again. That’s how much faith I have in Zach [Farmer] that he’s going to get the job done,” Bumgardner said.
It is experience that will only help Farmer going forward.
“I think that this is just going to help him grow up a little bit. We had some mistakes out there on the mound and some things that are not his signature but I would take Zach against any pitcher in Southeast District,” Bumgardner said.
Despite the control problems, Farmer did a solid job keeping his team in the game. In five innings, he gave up four runs, working himself out of trouble multiple times.
“I would have liked to see our offensive performance be a little more on the greedy side. We had some opportunities where we maybe could have broken the game open with a big hit or two and we weren’t able to get it,” Estep said.
After a while, the squandered chances began to get frustrating.
“I told them I was getting tired of seeing ones up there. But in the tournament, you’ll be happy getting away with a win,” Estep said.
The 26-1 Pirates were a definite favorite coming into the game, facing a 13-15 Piketon squad. But down 2-0 in the second inning, Wheelersburg faced some adversity. Estep’s experienced bunch did not let it burden them.
“We have six seniors that have been here with us in these type of games for the past couple years. There was no sense of panic. I think if anything our intensity rose a notch,” Estep said.
In the bottom half of the second, Wheelersburg chipped into the lead with Bryce Hall scoring on a Farmer error. The Pirates subsequently scored one run in each of the next three innings, with Hall leading the way. He finished the day as the team’s leading batter, going three for three and scoring two runs.
While Hall gave him run support, Elliott felt some pressure on the mound, with past experience working both for and against him.
“You always feel a little jitters inside of you. It’s not as bad but since I’m a senior it kind of makes it a little worse just because I want to perform so well and I don’t have another chance,” Elliott said.
While Elliott helped put Piketon’s season to an end, Wheelersburg moves on to Friday’s Division III Championship game. It will face the winner of Wellston/Chillicothe Huntington.
“We’ll see who it is. I guess we’ll start worrying about it now a little bit. But we’ll enjoy this one on the way back and then have a good practice tomorrow to get ready for Friday,” Estep said.
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