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Crestview’s McDonough wins pitchers’ duel vs. South Range
Three days after no-no, Rebels’ ace blanks the Raiders
By Steve Wilaj
EAST FAIRFIELD
Crestview ace Michael McDonough wasn’t sure how his left arm would feel as he headed to the bullpen to warm up for Thursday’s matchup with South Range.
The junior just pitched on Monday — a no-hitter against United nonetheless — so, he was actually guessing his arm might be “kind of sore.
“But I got to the bullpen and felt great,” McDonough said. “Then I went to the mound and knew I had to do my job against a great team — and everything was working on every pitch.”
In a complete-game effort, the Ohio State recruit struck out 14 batters and allowed just three hits as the Rebels (13-4, 5-2 Inter Tri-County League Red)) snuck past South Range, 1-0.
“His performance has been like that all year,” Rebels coach Dan Hill said. “The biggest thing tonight was his demeanor on the mound. We made a couple mistakes behind him, but he got back up there and let everybody know that it’s about the next play. He was phenomenal tonight.”
McDonough barely out-dueled South Range starter Travis Baxter. The Raiders’ junior went six innings as he allowed an unearned run on two hits, two walks and four strikeouts.
The Rebels’ run came in the bottom of the fourth inning on two South Range (11-6, 3-2) miscues. Mitch Lindsay reached on a throwing error and came around to score on a second throwing error — this time on Josh McGoogan’s two-out groundball.
“It’s frustrating,” South Range coach Jim Hanek said. “You know going in that runs are at a premium and to give one away unearned, it hurts.
“Travis did a great job,” Hanek said. “They threatened a little more offensively more than we did and he kept them at bay.
“But McDonough was on today. He got ahead of our hitters and had command of his fastball and off-speed stuff.”
The Raiders threatened in the fourth inning when Ryan Miller connected for a two-out double. But his pinch runner, Randy Skripac, was thrown out at third base during Ethan Dominguez’s infield single.
McDonough fielded the dribbler and threw home to catcher Jacob Wick. Wick then picked off Skripac on a wide turn around third base.
“We work on that a lot — just different situations in practice and it really paid off tonight,” McDonough said. “A big play like that saved a run.”
South Range also had a baserunner reach in the sixth and seventh inning to no avail. In the sixth, Greg Dunham reached on a two-out error, but was quickly thrown out attempting to steal second.
“We made more mistakes than they did and that was the difference,” Hanek said.
Josh Fromel notched a single in the seventh inning for South Range’s third and final hit. Meanwhile, Chris Bryan and Lindsay, who doubled, recorded Crestview’s hits.
“I do and I don’t,” Hill said when asked if he thought Crestview stole the game from South Range. “We’re not gonna put 13 runs up on somebody, but we’ve got to play good defense and some small ball. That’s kind of been our motto and we need to get back to that.”