The Tigers coast to 11-1 victory in semifinal game
Springfield’s Travis Richey pitched his team to a 11-1 victory over the Mathews Mustangs in Tuesday’s game.
STRUTHERS — The biggest decision that Springfield baseball coach Bob Beam had to make against Mathews in Tuesday’s Division IV district semifinal game at Cene Park was which one of his “ace” pitchers he would throw against the Mustangs.
“It was Travis’ [Richey] turn to pitch,” Beam said. “Some think that Todd Kibby is our number-one, but we feel like we have two number-one pitchers.”
Richey (6-0) pitched a five-hitter and struck out eight Mustangs hitters over six innings to lead Springfield to a 11-1 victory.
The Inter Tri-County Tier One champion Tigers (22-5) will face McDonald (the Tier Two champs) tonight at 7 with Kibby expected to take the mound.
Springfield will be trying to make it to the Division IV regional tournament for the first time since the 1994 season. This is the first year the Tigers are competing in Division IV.
“Travis is a good pitcher,” Beam said. “He throws a lot of strikes.”
As the game played out, it became evident that Springfield’s hitting and not pitching would be the story for the Tigers.
Springfield wasted little time in getting on the scoreboard and putting the pressure on Mathews.
The Tigers rallied with two outs in the first inning with four straight hits, including doubles by Kibby and Frank Sferra to plate four runs.
“I thought we played well,” Beam said. “We hit the ball well. [Mathews] has good starting pitching, but we’ve been hitting the ball well.”
Beam said getting the four runs in the first inning was the key to the win.
“Getting a four-run lead in the first gives your guys a lot of confidence,” Beam said. “In the first inning, Travis [Richey] seemed to have the jitters. He threw a lot of pitches, but he settled down after he got that four-run lead.
“When you jump up on a team 4-0, you just have to keep doing what you’re doing and try to score some more runs. Once you get that momentum going, you have to keep it.”
Springfield did just that, although they didn’t score in every inning.
The Tigers added a run in the third inning on a single by Kibby and an RBI hit by Sferra, his second hit and RBI of the game.
Sferra finished with 3 hits to lead the Tigers’ 11-hit parade.
Mathews got a run in the fifth when Colin Bowser reached first on a fielder’s choice, stole second and came home on Rick Sommers’ RBI single.
Springfield tallied three runs in the bottom of the inning on some shoddy fielding by the Mustangs, who allowed a run to score on an error, a passed ball and a wild pitch.
“We played ugly today,” Mathews coach Dan Kennedy said. “We’re much better than that. We gotta go home and finish out the season.”
The Mustangs (17-4-1) will play Badger on Thursday for the Northeast Athletic League championship.
Springfield ended the game in the bottom of the sixth by scoring three more runs.
Brandon Goist had an RBI walk with the bases loaded, and Richey and Bryan Visingardi drove in the final two runs with base hits.