By Grant Barrett, Ad Astra Radio
McPHERSON, Kan. – On Tuesday, the McPherson High Baseball team returned to Grant Sports Complex, testing themselves in a quad, falling to Great Bend, before bouncing back for a shutout victory against Emporia.
Game 1 was a pitcher’s duel early, as Jaytin Gumm would get the start for McPherson, going against left-hander, Tyler Stuhlsatz of Great Bend.
The Panthers would collect back-to-back runs in the second and third before Teegan Haines would bring the Pups back within one in the fourth with a solo homerun.
McPherson would find themselves making uncharacteristic mistakes which lead to two more runs in the 5th, but Dawson Feil would come up with a two-out RBI single to get the Pups back within one.
“It seemed like we would scratch and get we were so close a couple different times, but credit to Great Bend, I thought they competed, put a lot of balls in play, and got a lot of barrels.”
Great Bend would again retaliate for two runs in the sixth, taking a 6-3 lead. Jaytin Gumm would line a solo home run to left-center, but with two outs, the Pups weren’t able to mount anything more in the seventh, as they would fall 6-4.
“We didn’t play our brand of baseball.” said Head Coach Heath Gerstner, “I think our team gets better on days like today, and it gives me a chance to make some notes and we can go right back to work and get ready for next Monday.”
In Game 2, the Bullpups would get another strong performance from Jaret Myers, who held Emporia scoreless through six innings of work. “Jaret Myers had a fantastic start for us, pounded the zone all day, and let our defense make plays for him.” said Gerstner regarding the senior’s performance.
At the plate Hunter Alvord’s double down the left field line would lead to an RBI single from Teegan Haines as they combined to lead McPherson collecting five of the eight hits.
Four McPherson runs came unearned as they were able to bounce back to defeat Emporia 8-0.
Ian Razak would record the final three outs in order, and following the lefty’s 1-2-3 inning, Coach Gerstner said, “Ian slammed the door there, I challenged him to have a twelve-pitch inning, and he was pretty pumped to have an eleven-pitch inning there to end it, and we need him to be good for us down the stretch.”
Gerstner mentioned how pleased he was with his team, for bouncing back and taking care to conclude the day, he said. “Proud of that win, I think Emporia’s a team that can definitely beat you, they’ve had kind of a rough go of it here, but they’re a good baseball team, and we got better today.”
He reflected on the first half of the season, and said, “The halfway mark is a good time to really evaluate ourselves, and figure out what’s the group of guys we’re going to move ahead with this last half of our season, and we’re starting to figure some stuff out and I really like it.”
Coach Gerstner focused then focused on the offense saying, “I think we’ve got to be more consistent at the plate, I think we put two or three fantastic at-bats together, then we kind of let one get away from us, and I think we can sure up some of those things, I really like how we’re getting pretty free on the basepaths, we’re getting pretty aggressive.”
“Defensively, we have to have more of a constant there. I thought we were excellent this game, I thought the previous game we got sped up a little bit, and got to fix a couple little things.”
The Bullpups will have the rest of the week off, before traveling to Augusta on Monday, for a doubleheader against the Orioles. First pitch is set for 4 p.m.
Game 1: McPherson 4, Great Bend 6
Batting:
D. Feil 1-3, 2RBIs
J. Myers 0-3
G. Richardson 1-3
H. Alvord 0-3, BB, R
B. Richardson 0-3,
C. Allen 0-3
J. Gumm 2-3, RBI, HBP, 2R, HR
T. Haines 1-3, RBI, R, HR
C. Wedel 0-3
Pitching:
J. Gumm 5.0 IP 6H 4R 3ER 5BB 2K
H. Alvord 2.0 IP 1H 2R 0ER 3BB 4K
Game 2: McPherson 8, Emporia 0
Batting:
D. Feil 0-3, BB
J. Myers 0-2, R, BB
B. Burgess, R
O. Fetsch 1-3 R
G. Richardson 0-4
H. Alvord 3-4, 3RBIs 3R
B. Richardson 0-2, BB
J. Gumm 1-2, 3R, BB, HBP
T. Haines 2-3, RBI, BB
C. Wedel 1-3, R
Pitching:
J. Myers 6.0 IP 6H 0R 0 ER 0BB 8K
I. Razak 1.0 IP 0H 0R 0ER 0BB 1K
