By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
SPRINGFIELD — For all of the hype surrounding the long-awaited rematch between Springfield Catholic and Aurora, each team’s approach to the game could not have been more different.
The Fighting Irish entered their Big 8 East opener determined to avenge the only blemish on an otherwise perfect season, a game in which the Houn Dawgs tagged their bullpen for six runs. After collapsing in the Right Off The Bat tournament finale, they had to win Thursday’s game.
In the other dugout, Aurora coach James Hoffman viewed the matchup between the two state-ranked teams as a chance to see how some of his more inexperienced pitchers would respond to the pressure of big-game scenarios as the Houn Dawgs eye a potential playoff run.
Put those together and you have the recipe for the first inning, a frame in which the Fighting Irish drew six walks, scored three runs without recording a hit and held on for a 6-4 victory.
“This was a game we were looking forward to after that loss,” Fighting Irish senior Jeremy Rader said. “We knew we should have had that last one. To get them this time was very special.”
Rader, who has committed to Missouri State, struck out 14 batters over six innings when the teams last met, but the bullpen couldn’t get the final three outs and Aurora rallied for a win.
With that result fresh on their mind and matchups with Big 8 East opponents Hollister and Logan-Rogersville looming next week, Fighting Irish coach Courtney Spitz elected to have Rader come out of the bullpen and tabbed sophomore Danny White to make the start.
White was superb, carrying a no-hitter into the fourth inning before Aurora’s Trey Mulholland broke it up with a one-out RBI single. That was the only hit and run he allowed in 4-1/3 innings, as White finished with six strikeouts and four walks before exiting due to pitch count restrictions.
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Butler commit Colin Davis and Rader combined to record the final eight outs, sealing the victory as Springfield Catholic improved to 14-1 (1-0) and won its ninth consecutive game.
“We really love Danny White,” Spitz said. “He’s a good pitcher and he’s got very good stuff. He loves pitching. He loves to be on the mound for his team. We feel like Danny gives us a really good chance to win against any team that we play against, so we started Danny. We knew he would be on a little bit of a limited pitch count, but we also knew that we had two of our top three arms coming back on the back end of him.”
Mulholland, Aurora’s ace, was unavailable to pitch after tossing a complete-game shutout against Hollister on Tuesday. So Hoffman tasked junior Aaron Fisher with making his first varsity start against a red-hot Springfield Catholic team that had outscored teams 151-40 in its first 14 games — including 37-7 in its past three — and is currently ranked fifth in the state in Class 4.
Fisher walked all four batters he faced before he was relieved by Kelton Brown, who walked three more to give the Irish a 3-0 lead.
“We weren’t really expecting them to walk a bunch of guys because they did not do that last game, but we took advantage of it,” Rader said. “We had a few missed chances, but we got our runs when we needed to so that was some good momentum for us in the game.”
Rader added a solo home run in the second inning, drove in Cole Leonhart with a double in the fourth and scored on Ben Smith’s groundout later in that inning as the Irish lead swelled to 6-1.
The future Bear finished 2-for-3 with two RBI and three runs scored.
“He always stands out for us at the plate,” Spitz said. “He’s been like that for us all year. There’s no doubt in my mind that he is the best hitter possibly in the state of Missouri. He’s just that good. That’s no disrespect to anyone else. There are a lot of great hitters in this Springfield, Missouri, area, but I think Jeremy — with the season he is having — is a standout performer.”
They needed those insurance runs, as the Class 4 No. 2 Houn Dawgs rallied for two runs against Davis in the sixth and added another against Rader in the seventh.
But the deficit proved to be too much for Aurora, which fell to 11-2 (1-1).
From Hoffman’s perspective, though, the game may be a lose-the-battle, win-the-war situation.
As the team ramps up its Big 8 East play and gets ready for the district and state playoffs, the Houn Dawgs are looking to learn more about the ideal situations to use their pitching staff.
How do players who have been solid in relief outings handle starts? How do untested pitchers handle inherited runners? How does the offense respond when it’s trailing late in a game?
They got some answers to those questions on Thursday.
“We’re trying to find guys who are going to get it done on the mound late in the year and try to get them up there,” Hoffman said. “Some are going to work. Some aren’t. Today, we didn’t pitch very well early, but we came back. Anytime you walk (eight) guys and you’re still in a ball game, that’s a testament to the guys that come in and compete pitch after pitch after pitch.”
As the team continues to use pitchers in new situations, scenes like Thursday’s first inning may become more common. But dealing with them now might pay off in the district or state playoffs.
“In the postseason, we’re going to be in holes,” Hoffman said. “How do we respond to those things? I thought our guys didn’t get down. They did what’s expected of them. It’s one of those deals that if you learn something from a loss, that’s what we’re looking for. We’re going to lose more games later in the year — and the only one that matters is the last one.”
Hoffman was referring to the last game of the season, and whether it results in a title.
For Springfield Catholic, a different last one — which was also for a title — mattered quite a bit.
“We had a bad taste in our mouth from the last time we played them,” Spitz said. “We felt like we didn’t play a complete game. But anytime you can go out as the home team and get a 1-2-3 inning and then come into the bottom half of the inning and score some runs, that’s a dream start. We took advantage of some miscues on their end and that start is huge. It settles our guys in and gives them a lot of confidence.”
AURORA 000 102 1 — 4
SPRINGFIELD CATHOLIC 310 200 X — 6
