By Nick Beversdorf
Reporter
After two wildly different games against Wausau East this past week, Bluejay varsity baseball came back with a win this past Friday against Medford. The final score was 7-5 with the Bluejays generating 10 hits and committing six errors. This win puts the Bluejays at 3-7 overall.
Both teams scored a run in the first inning, with Drew Hoff batting in Trevor Asmundsen with a hard grounder to right field. Merrill would score three more runs in the third, starting with Asmundsen stealing second base. During the steal Nick Bowe was able to score a run on an error and Asmundsen subsequently advanced to third base. Right after, Tyler Belfiori would bat Asmundsen in with a grounder to short stop.
During the fifth inning Jared Schmeltzer would drive in Ryan Golisch with a hard grounder to center field and Drew Hoff would subsequently score a run off an error, bring their total to seven runs.
All seemed well as the game went into the bottom of the fifth, until Medford scored four runs, a result of Merrill committing crucial errors at second and third base while the bases were loaded. By the time the fifth inning was over, the score was 7-5, but thankfully the Bluejays got back into gear and started making defensive plays that would prevent any more runs.
“The top half of the lineup hit the ball well, we had 10 hits overall in the game and scored some runs,” comments head coach Shawn Schultz. “Ty Belfiori pitched a real nice game – did a great job of keeping Medford off balance. The fifth inning was a tough one defensively. We had been very consistent defensively so it was a bit of a surprise for us to struggle that way. But we regrouped and made the plays we needed to for us to hang on to the lead.”
Tyler Belfiori did indeed pitch a nice game, striking out three and allowing three hits, three walks and five runs, none earned. Ryan Golisch lead the defensive effort with eight putouts. Other players include Troy Pike with three putouts, Trevor Asmundsen and Christian Halbach with two putouts, Belfiori with two putouts and two assists, Schmeltzer with one putout and four assists and Bowe with one putout and six assists.
Scoring leaders include Golisch with two runs and an RBI, Asmundsen with two runs, Hoff and Belfiori both with a run and a RBI, Bowe with a run and Schmeltzer with a RBI.
Bluejay varsity baseball will have their next game tonight at 5:00 at Mosinee.
Stats provided by GameChanger.