By Matt Turer — mturer@ky3.com
@Matt Turer
Forsyth, Mo. — The later it got, the more unhittable Wyatt Sparks seemed to get.
Up until the final out.
Aurora’s junior almost fooled every Springfield Catholic batter for 6.2 innings in the Clever ROTB Tournament title game, striking out 12 and throwing a one-hitter, losing his no-hitter on a hard-hit Josef Luthy grounder that found its way into left field as the Houn’ Dawgs beat the Fighting Irish 5-0 Saturday.
“My off-speed was working really well,” Sparks said. “My velocity wasn’t really there but my off-speed was working good.”
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Sparks (2-0) attacked Catholic (3-2) with a nasty curveball and, outside of four walks, excellent location, keeping his ERA at 0.00 and improving his season strikeout total to 24 in 11.2 innings.
“He’s really really good. That’s all there is to it,” Catholic head coach Jason Daughtery said. “Any time you face a pitcher of that caliber, you’re in for a fight. You’ve just got to scratch and claw and get anything you can.”
Daughtery didn’t seem to believe it when told Sparks felt his velocity was off.
“Off from what?,” he said. “I don’t know. His breaking pitch was right on. He was locating really well. I thought his curveball was pretty nasty. He did a good job against us, unless he throws 100 mph usually.”
Despite the lack of hits, Catholic managed to get runners in scoring position by way of walks and hit batters in the third and fourth innings. Sparks got out of the third with a strikeout and the fourth when Grant Schoen was caught trying to steal third.
Zach Cole reached base twice for the Irish via walks and was one of two Catholic batters to not strikeout Saturday, the other being Luthy.
“They put good swings on [Sparks] all through the night,” Aurora head coach James Hoffman said. “They were taking their hacks and did a nice job. They weren’t just going up there going, ‘we’re beat.’ “That’s the type of team that we want to see. We want to play that caliber of competition as many times as possible throughout the year.”
Aurora (4-0) managed just one hit off Catholic starter Cole over the game’s first three innings, striking out four times. But Cole got into trouble with six walks, managing to wiggle out of trouble with runners in scoring position in the first and third innings.
Justin Haake replaced Cole in the fourth, allowing a leadoff double to Preston Naylor before escaping the inning still tied 0-0 after stranding runners on second and third with one out.
The Houn’ Dawgs scored two runs of Haake in the fourth on RBI singles by Zac Shoemaker and Naylor.
Aurora added three more runs in the fifth. The first on a Sparks triple off the wall in deep right, the second on a bases-loaded balk and the third on a wild pitch.
Matthew Miller came in for the game’s final out after Sparks reached the pitch limit.
Aurora went 4-0 in the Clever Tournament, outscoring teams 25-2 with the closest game a 3-2 win over Walnut Grove.
Springfield Catholic finishes the tournament 2-2, also losing to Forsyth, 8-7.
UP NEXT
Houn’ Dawgs: Aurora will look to match last year’s 5-0 start when they host Springfield Central (3-0) on Monday.
Fighting Irish: Hollister (4-1) visits Catholic on Tuesday to open COC-Small play for both teams.
