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It’s hard enough to win a baseball game with only two hits. It’s even harder when Jason McEachern is on the mound.
The St. Stephens right-hander used an electric fastball, and effectively mixed in his off-speed pitches to keep the Bandys hitters guessing all afternoon, giving the Indians a 9-2 win in the semifinals of the Catawba Valley Athletic Conference tournament at L.P. Frans Stadium on Friday.
"You can’t win games with just two hits,” Chris “Chopper” Fulbright, Bandys head coach said. “Hats off to (McEachern). His off-speed stuff is so good. He keeps you off balance well. He mixes his pitches well.”
McEachern two-hit the Trojans and fanned 11 in the complete-game win, giving up a lead-off hit to J.W. Laney to start the game and a two-RBI double to Zach Hamby off the wall that would have been blasted out of any high school field in the third inning. “Early on I was just trying to get the fastball over,” McEachern said. “Bandys hitters are very disciplined hitters.”
So disciplined, in fact, McEachern got them to go down looking four times, using his breaking pitch for the knockout. “Keeping (the hitters) off balance is the main key for me,” he said. “Just keep’em guessing. It’s harder to hit when you’re guessing.”
While McEachern was busy playing “Guess Who” with the Trojans, St. Stephens’ hitters were busy putting runs up on the board.
The Indians plated three runs in the third to take a 4-2 lead, and added four more in the fifth to break the game open.
Brian Litwin led off the bottom of the fifth by reaching on a fielding error by third baseman Jordan Houston. On reliever Cory Roberts’ next pitch, Litwin stole second, and on the following pitch, stole third. Cade Vance’s sacrifice fly to left scored Litwin, and Eric Shaver’s two-run double three batters later scored Andrew Benton (single) and Matt Rowe (walk).
After Roberts got Brandon Martin to ground out to shortstop for the second out, Matt Garner’s RBI single to right scored Shaver and gave the Indians an 8-2 lead. “The first couple of innings I was feeling good about our chances,” Fulbright said. “I thought we had a chance at it.
“When we got down, with (McEachern) on the hill, I started thinking, ‘Oh God, here we go.’”
While Bandys won’t be in today’s CVAC tournament championship at 11 a.m. against either Hickory or Hibriten, it feels like it’s ready to make a playoff push when they begin next Friday. “I feel pretty confident,” Fulbright said. “Even though we didn’t win (Thursday), I think we’re playing our best ball right now.”
Patrick Kersey had an RBI triple and Benton a two-run single in the third for St. Stephens. Vance’s RBI single in the sixth set the final score.
Benton had three hits and two RBIs for the Indians, and Garner added two hits. Colby Yount allowed four runs and struck out four in four frames in the loss. |
