Lights out Scholten: JCC tops Worthington 14-1
Apr. 17—WORTHINGTON — Cam Scholten was dealing from the mound for Jackson County Central in a 14-1 victory over Worthington on Monday night. Worthington has dropped its opening two home baseball games this season.
Scholten pitched the complete game for the Huskies. He allowed four hits and one run. He was efficient and excellent with free passes being hard to come by for Trojans' batters.
"I was just kind of feeling everything to be honest," said Scholten of his pitching. "It felt amazing, my defense played great behind me today. ... It was a really fun game."
The Huskies offense has started the season hot, but lukewarm defense and errors have hampered them in previous starts. On Monday, the Huskies flipped the script and were excellent in defending the bases for Scholten.
Scholten batted fourth in the Huskies lineup and hit a three-run home run late in the game to cap off his stellar performance.
The Trojans started Triston Sauerbrei on the mound and he went five innings, striking out nine. Sauerbrei allowed four hits, three walks and hit two batters. The Huskies scored two runs in the first. Ben Spaeth batted third and hit an RBI triple off the first pitch in his at-bat.
Spaeth went 3-for-3 from the plate with two RBIs and four runs scored. Nine batters scored 14 runs for the Huskies. Brett Rossow had two hits and two RBIs.
"Our offense has been pretty solid all year. We are scoring runs — just committing too many errors lately," said Scholten. "It is nice getting everyone in (today) and knowing that you can rely on everyone is a really nice feeling for the team."
Scholten was impressed by his pitching advisory and credited Sauerbrei for giving the Huskies hard thrown pitches.
"Their pitcher (Sauerbrei) had a really nice curveball," said Scholten. "He was getting a lot of us out."
Sauerbrei was able to jam Scholten in the first inning, and then he completed the pop-fly out as he fell onto his back and the ball jumped from his glove to throwing hand without ever touching the ground.
The Huskies amassed 14 hits across the four pitchers they faced. Sauerbrei was relieved by Cooper McCoy. McCoy was relieved by Brandon Bosma, and he was relieved by Tucker Brandner for the final out in the seventh inning.
Worthington struggled at the plate. Through the first five innings they collected just two hits. Scholten showcased top command and made free bases through walks and hit-by-pitch come at a premium.
The Trojans offense was able to score a run when Mathias Noble hit a single in the bottom of the sixth, and McCoy belted a double to put runners on second and third.
Noble scored on a sacrifice fly hit by Sauerbrei to the shortstop. But Scholten was able to end the jam there, and record the final three outs to finish his complete game performance.
Post game and post huddle, Scholten ran six sprints, equal to the distance from first to second in the outfield. He said the team does it after every game to the pitchers to help get their blood going into the arm.
"When you win it is nice," said Scholten with a smile. "When you lose it is not the most fun to go out there and run."
The Huskies and Trojans are both scheduled to play on Tuesday. The Huskies will play St. James Area and the Trojans travel to play rival Marshall.
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WORTHINGTON 000 001 0 — 1 4 4
