Our Mustangs played just about as well as a high school baseball team can play Thursday afternoon at the St. Mary Ballyard. We put the ball in play, took advantage of Dixie Heights miscues, and we were perfect in the field, playing error free baseball. Our pitcher, Junior Brandon Burkhardt, now 2-1, pitched 6 1/3 innings of shutout baseball before getting into a one out, bases loaded jam, in the top of the seventh. Coach Ron Verst called on Alex Noe to bail out our starter. It took him four pitches to get the Dixie hitter to hit a hot grounder to Brandon Bezold at third base, who tapped the base, and fired a shot across the diamond to Robbie Verst to complete the double play and put this on in the history book as a 6-0 shutout over a quality opponent.
At the plate we were equally as efficient, as five different Mustangs had hits, led by Robbie Verst (.480) who went 2 for 4, and Sam Willike at 2 for 2. Both had doubles. Robbie scored twice and Willike once. Sam also had an RBI. Five of our runs scored, were unearned.
Burkhardt was far from overpowering, striking out only two opponents and scattering six hits. He also issued four bases on balls, but over and again we made plays in the field. This was Alex Noe’s third appearance this season. He has accumulated 4 1/3 innings of work and is yet to allow a run, on two hits, walking one batter and sitting down three on strikes. On Thursday, it took him four pitches to work out of the jam, preserve the shutout, and improve our season record to 5-3.
