Defiance used solid pitching and speed on the base paths to overcome defensive problems in a 5-1 win over Lima Shawnee on Tuesday night in the Western Buckeye League opener.
The victory pushed the Bulldogs to 2-1 on the season while extending their WBL winning streak to 69.
“We try not to talk about it, but we don't want to mess it up,” senior Austin Hancock said of extending the league streak.
Hancock did his part throwing a three-hitter with eight strikeouts. The senior right-hander walked two while allowing an unearned run in the fourth.
“Everything was working,” Hancock said. “The change was my key pitch. I go to that on any count. It just keeps getting better and better. It does something different every pitch.”
Trevor Anderson had a pair of singles and Brandon Kohl one, none of the hard-hit variety off of Hancock.
“Austin had a really good outing,” DHS coach Tom Held said. “His change was good, he mixed his pitches and he kept his pitches down. It was a quality outing. He did a great job.”
Helping matters was pitching with a lead.
Hancock led off the bottom of the first with a line single up the middle and, after a stolen base, Boo Sierra hit a sacrifice bunt that ended in a throwing error to score Hancock. With one down, Derek Turner singled to left moving Sierra to third and the seniors followed with a double steal for a 2-0 lead.
“That gives me an extra boost of energy,” Hancock said of pitching in front.
The lead reached 3-0 in the second when Jacob Green ripped a sharp single to left, advanced on a stolen base and scored on a Sierra base hit to left.
Shawnee threatened in the third thanks to a pair of Defiance errors, before scoring its only run in the fourth on a walk, single, passed ball and RBI ground out by Tobi Azeez. But for the second inning in a row the Indians left a runner in scoring position.
“We didn't take advantage of their errors and we didn't hit the ball,” said Shawnee coach Scott Newman, who was impressed with the performance of Hancock.
“He threw a lot of strikes and had a good off-speed pitch,” Newman noted. “He kept it down in the zone and that gave our hitters fits.”
Clinging to a 3-1 advantage, the Bulldogs tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the fifth. Sierra led off with a single and, after his third stolen base of the night, moved to third on a beautiful bunt single by Dom Gentile.
Gentile stole second, the eighth stolen base of the game for Defiance, before Turner walked to juice the bases. Jimmy Bauer followed with an RBI single and Torrence Hicks added a sacrifice fly.
“We ran really well,” Held said. “That's our strength. The nice part is going into today we had nine stolen bases and they were by eight guys. We only have a guy or two that can't run, the rest can run.
“We also had a couple good bunts by Boo and Dom. We could have broken it open but we had a couple (base running) blunders.”
Four infield errors kept things interesting as well, pushing the season total to 10 errors in three games for Defiance.
“That should be one of our strengths,” Held said. “It's a mental thing now. We're out of position in the infield right now because of Dom (playing first instead of third), but I'm not nervous about it. Now … if it keeps going I might be.”
The Bulldogs return to action Thursday at Findlay before returning to Western Buckeye League play on Friday at Kenton.
Linescore
Shawnee 000 100 0 - 1 3 1
Defiance 210 020 x - 5 8 4
Records: Defiance 2-1 (1-0 WBL), Shawnee 2-3 (0-1 WBL).
Winning pitcher: Austin Hancock (7 innings, 1 run, 3 hits, 8 strikeouts, 2 walks).
Losing pitcher: Austin Brachok (4 innings, 5 runs, 8 hits, 5 strikeouts, 1 walk). Other: Justin Fullom (2 innings, 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 strikeouts, 0 walks).
Leading hitters: (Shawnee) – Trevor Anderson 2 singles. (Defiance) – Boo Sierra 2 singles; Jacob Green 2 singles.