Alexander blasts Wellston

Alexander’s Zach Weffler threw a complete game shutout and the Spartan offense caught fire after a slow start to down Wellston 9-0.

Weffler struggled with his command in the opening frame, walking three Wellston batters before striking out opposing pitcher Michael Grey to leave two Rockets stranded. Weffler found his rhythm in the second, striking out the side and setting the theme for the rest of the contest.

The junior hurler finished the game with 15 strikeouts and carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning, improving his record to 3-1 on the season.

“That’s what we expect out of Zach,” Alexander head coach Vaughn Grigsby said. “When he’s on, we’ve seen what he can do. Zach’s a competitor, he throws the ball real well. I don’t think his breaking ball was working as well (today) so he used the fastball a lot. He had his fastball moving and they had a tough time catching up to it.”

The Spartan bats began to show signs of life in the latter part of the second inning, with third baseman Cody Lawson giving a lesson on how to manufacture runs. Lawson blooped a single into right field before stealing second and moving to third on a balk by Grey. Weffler followed by grounding out to short but knocking in the runner to open the scoring.

“Baseball is a funny game,” Grigsby said. “We hit two shots and a hard ball at the first baseman in the first inning (but didn’t record a base-runner). We came back out in the second inning and Cody Lawson hits the ball of the end of the bat and it falls over the second baseman’s head.”

A series of Wellston (1-6, 0-3 TVC) errors allowed Alexander (6-2, 2-1 TVC) some breathing room in the bottom of the third.

Lead-off hitter Brandon McCarthy reached on an error by third baseman Brad Miller to spark the rally. A single and an error followed to load the bases, but it looked as though Grey would get out of the jam when he forced a fly-out and induced a two-out grounder to third. Miller’s throw was in the dirt, though, and the ball spun away from Tyler Walton, opening up a three run Alexander lead.

An unlikely source broke up the no-hitter with two outs in the top of the fifth when the diminutive Jordan Arthur laced a single into right field. The base runner seemed to break the spell that Weffler’s fastball had cast over the Rockets, as two straight singles followed.

The latter ended the rally, however, as Arthur was thrown out at home to end the inning. Starved for offense, the third base coach rolled the dice by sending the runner but was foiled by a technical relay to the plate. It was the last time that the Rockets would threaten to score.

“I think (Weffler) did a good job when he got in tight situations and we became a little impatient,” Wellston head coach Jim Derrow said. “This is just a repetition of what we’ve been all year. We’ve got four freshmen and two sophomores and are just learning how to play the game. We are not consistent at the plate and, believe it or not, we’re getting better. We’re a proud program and will battle back.”

The floodgates opened with the shift in momentum. Catcher Michael Chapman ignited three-run frames in both the fifth and sixth innings with lead-off singles as Alexander rounded out the scoring just one shy of the mercy rule.

“I can’t say enough about Michael,” Grigsby said. “Right now, he is just ripping the cover off of the baseball. He’s got one or two hits in almost every game he’s played in so far. You can see the confidence when he goes into the batter’s box. He’s on top of the plate and telling them, ‘It’s mine, come after me.’”

A lack of depth in the pitching rotation contributed to the offensive outburst when the left-handed Grey was forced to leave the game after 3 and ⅔ innings through outside circumstances. Grey took the loss and moved his record to 0-2 on the year.

“(Gray) was on a medical situation, he was only allowed a certain amount of pitches and it was his first game since his first game of the year,” Derrow said. “He did a really good job given the situation that he was in. The other kids that threw were all freshmen, and they all did a very good job.”

Alexander took advantage of Wellston’s inexperience on the base-paths as well, stealing 15 bases and keeping up the pressure on the Rockets defense throughout.

“If you sit around and let the game come to you, sometimes you’re going to get hurt,” Grigsby said. “My philosophy is, the more pressure you put on a team, the more often they’re going to make plays. They start four freshman, one of them was the catcher. We knew coming in that we’re going to take advantage of that. Three years from now, we probably won’t be able to run on that young man but in baseball, you have to take advantage of a weakness.”

The Spartans will look to build on this momentum tomorrow night in Jackson with an eye on Monday’s Tri-Valley Conference showdown with bitter rival Athens. Wellston resumes action on Saturday and will hope to rebound quickly with a home doubleheader against Federal Hocking.