Jays beat Braves: JHS ups region mark to 2-1
It’s hard to get a read on the West Region in the early goings of the season. No team has emerged as of yet as they take turns beating each other. The Blue Jays just might be the team to fill the void especially after Tuesday’s impressive 7-2 win over Mandan at Jack Brown Stadium.By: By Dave Selvig, The Jamestown Sun, The Jamestown Sun
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It’s hard to get a read on the West Region in the early goings of the season.
No team has emerged as of yet as they take turns beating each other.
The Blue Jays just might be the team to fill the void especially after Tuesday’s impressive 7-2 win over Mandan at Jack Brown Stadium.
The victory was their second in three region games and it came over the Braves, who were picked second in the West.
“It was a good win for us. More so than anything I thought we played pretty well fundamentally,” JHS coach Cory Anderson said. “Still some things we need to clean up. We had some baserunning mistakes, but defensively how we moved was really encouraging. It’s nice not having to yell to have somebody back up a base.
“They’re buying into the way we want to do things and that’s fun to watch.”
The Blue Jays finished off the sweep in the 5-inning nightcap, 3-2.
Three JHS players had multi-hit games and Tyler Krenz labored through five effective innings on the mound in Game 1.
“It’s hard to get a gauge on (the region),” Anderson said. “Most teams are still trying to figure some things out. We’re still in that feeling-things-out stage it seems.”
The Blue Jays got off to a quick start as Danny Fischer doubled to start the bottom of the first and eventually came around to score on a sac-fly by Jake Stilwell.
The Braves got two in their next at-bat and led until the Blue Jays countered with back-to-back 3-run rallies in the fourth and fifth innings.
The first five hitters reached in the fourth with Riley Shafer’s RBI single to score Tyler Ukestad putting the Blue Jays back in front. Mandan was shaky defensively in the inning, committing two errors.
Leading 4-2, the Blue Jays batted around in the fifth to put it away, getting singles from Cody Benson, Ukestad and Shafer. Benson, Fischer and Shafer each had two hits in the game.
“I do think we have the potential to be a solid offensive team and I thought we showed some of that,” Anderson said. “We need to be more consistent, obviously. Part of that is our younger kids believing they can do it, which they can, but I think we’ll continually see improvement in that area.”
Krenz threw over 100 pitches in his five innings, but allowed just two runs. He threw over 100 pitches on Friday against Dickinson too.
“We might have stretched him out a little more than we intended, but he didn’t want to come out of the game, which was good to see,” Anderson said.
Stilwell got the final six outs, five on strikeouts.
Brady Zittleman had three hits for the Braves, but they played much of the game without their No. 3 and 5 hitters. Dwight Mack had to leave with an apparent hand injury, while Logan McDowell was ejected after a bizarre sequence in the top of the second. McDowell drove a pitch from Krenz deep to right-center field, but was easily gunned down trying to stretch it into a double. McDowell got up and threw a forearm shiver into the chest of Fischer, which sent the JHS shortstop sailing into the air. McDowell was immediately ejected, but Fischer popped right back up no worse for the wear.
JHS 3, Mandan 2
Brady Anderson clubbed a 2-run home run in the bottom of the first inning and Fischer earned the complete-game victory as they won the second game 3-2, which does not count in the region standings.
Tied 2-all into the last of the fifth, Cody Benson scored the game-winning run to give the Blue Jays their 8th win of the season in 10 games.
Shafer had two more hits, one of them a double, to give him four total on the day.
Pat Lane also had two knocks as they outhit the Braves 9-6.
Fischer did not walk a batter and struck out three.
The Blue Jays are on the road Thursday at Bismarck Century. They host Bismarck St. Mary’s on Friday.
Jamestown 7, Mandan 2
Mandan 020 000 0 — 2 9 4
Jamestown 100 330 x — 7 7 1
Tyler Krenz, Jake Stilwell (6) and Joey Gebhardt. Brady Zittleman, Zach Scott (5) and Dwight Mack, Tyler Johns (3). W—Krenz. L—Zittleman. 2B—Mandan, Tre Kautzman. JHS, Danny Fischer.
Jamestown 3, Mandan 2
Mandan 000 20 — 2 6 1
Jamestown 200 01 — 3 9 1
Danny Fischer and Gebhardt. Mitchell Haider and Johns. W—Fischer. L—Haider. HR—JHS, Brady Anderson (2).
Sun sports editor Dave Selvig can be reached at (701) 952-8460 or by e-mail at daves@jamestownsun.com
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