The Black & Gold World Series went to a decisive Game 3 this afternoon to decide what side gets bragging rights heading into the winter. RBI singles from Coy Sarsfield and Gable Mitchell helped lift Black to a 3-1 victory in 6 innings.
The starting pitching battle featured a pair of freshmen in Cade Obermueller and Aaron Savary. Both outings had their ups and downs, but they combined to allow just one earned run over 7.1 innings of work. Coach Rick Heller was pleased with what he saw and hopes to see them improve over the winter.
“Both of them are doing a nice job and it’s two guys that we definitely have confidence in at a young age…They both had good falls and had made good progress and they did a nice job today. Hopefully by February they will be even better and I’m looking forward to the offseason with those guys and getting to work on a few little things.”
Gold took the opening lead of the game in the fourth inning on a good bunt from Cade Moss that drove in Andy Nelson. Nelson reached via walk and then stole two bases to get into position. Black struck back in the fifth inning after back-to-back singles from Ben Wilmes and Kellen Strohmeyer set the table. A wild pitch from Chas Wheatley allowed Wilmes to score and tie the game at 1.
Keaton Anthony led off the sixth inning with a double and forced Gold to bring Jack Whitlock in from the bullpen. After a Raider Tello sacrifice fly got Anthony to third, Coy Sarsfield and Gable Mitchell delivered back-to-back RBI singles to give Black a 3-1 lead late in the game.
On the mound for Black, Jacob Henderson had things locked down. He retired eight of the nine batters he faced, while the lone hit came from Brennen Dorighi with two outs in the sixth inning. Henderson really had the slider working for him and got three strikeouts over 2.2 innings.
“He’s had his ups and downs this fall. He’s gone pretty much all the way down to submarine (throwing motion) and his velocity dropped when he made that adjustment, but today he was really good,” said Heller. “If he can be that guy (like today), then he can definitely help us out for sure.”
As for the entire fall session of practices, the Hawkeyes picked up three easy wins against Mississauga, Iowa Central and DMACC. Coach Heller says he was happy with the progress that was made over the last couple months.
“I’m really pleased with the fall. 22 new guys and I felt like we made really good progress since August…I thought when we had our top guys out there against the teams we played this fall, I thought we looked really good.”
“This team in my opinion has a chance to be pretty special if we really work hard over the offseason and go to work on some things. We definitely still need to work on some things, that’s a given, but come February if these guys get after it, I think we have a chance to be pretty good.”
The one thing the Hawkeyes seem to have more than previous years is a lot of speed throughout the lineup. Michael Seegers, Sam Petersen, Kyle Huckstorf, Gable Mitchell, Andy Nelson, etc all have the ability to put pressure on defenses to bunt for hits, steal bases and even take an extra base on a ball in the gap.
“We haven’t had this speed in a long, long time,” said Heller.
Looking ahead at what the starting rotation could look like on opening day, Heller says that Ty Langenberg and Zach Voelker look to be two of the three, but the Sunday role is up for grabs. He said he feels pretty confident in the options that they have available for that final spot and even mentioned that Keaton Anthony is in the running for that spot.
“Once Keaton gets into real pitching shape, as he builds up, if that’s the worst-case scenario with him on Sunday, we’re in pretty good shape”
Looking at the bullpen, there are still things to figure out with the departures from last season. Will Christophersen is someone that will likely fill one of the bigger roles, but Coach Heller says that Marcus Morgan and Brody Brecht could end up being the wildcards that could put the pitching staff up another level from where it currently stands.
“We don’t have Brody out here yet. (Marcus), he’s made some improvements, but we need to keep him going in the right direction this offseason. That’s the big wildcard for this team. What can those two guys bring to the table for us? If they are two guys that we can trust, this staff is pretty good.”
Finally, there were a number of guys that impressed at different times over the six games I attended, but one that stood out was Parkland transfer P Jack Young. Over three appearances, Young went 4.1 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit, while striking out nine and walking just one.
“He impressed me,” said Heller. “He came in advertised as the guy that was going to pound the zone, throw a good breaking ball. Be at 90 mph or right around there and that was pretty much exactly what we saw. There was no fear. I really liked his confidence.”
The next time the Iowa Baseball team takes the field for a game will be the season opener in February. The schedule for next spring has not yet been released as the final details are still being worked out, but it is expected to be out later this fall.
-Black Stats-
CF Sam Petersen: 1/2, HBP
3B Sam Hojnar: 0/3
EH Keaton Anthony: 1/2, 2B, BB, R
2B Raider Tello: 0/2, SAC fly
LF Coy Sarsfield: 1/2, BB, R, RBI
SS Gable Mitchell: 2/3, RBI
RF Brayden Frazier: 0/2, BB
3B Ben Wilmes: 1/2, R
DH Kellen Strohmeyer: 1/1, BB
P Cade Obermueller: 3.1 INN, 1 ER, 1 H, 4 SO, 3 BB
P Jacob Henderson: 2.2 INN, 1 H, 3 SO, BB
-Gold Stats-
SS Michael Seegers: 0/2, reached via error
RF Chase Moseley: 0/3
1B Brennen Dorighi: 1/3
CF Kyle Huckstorf: 0/2, BB
2B Andy Nelson: 0/1, BB, R
C Cade Moss: 1/1, SAC bunt, RBI
3B Mitch Wood: 0/2
EH DJ Heck: 0/2
LF Gehrig Christensen: 0/1, BB
EH Ben Swails: 0/2
P Aaron Savary: 4.0 INN, 1 H, 2 SO, 4 BB, HBP
P Chas Wheatley: 1.0 INN, 2 ER, 4 H
P Jack Whitlock: 1.0 INN, 1 ER, 2 H
