SUPPORT STAFF
BENTON — Neither Benton nor Millville has much breathing room when it comes to roster management with the two teams playing 11 combined games in the coming week.
The back of the Tigers' lineup did most of the scoring as it provided starting pitcher Graydon Beishline enough run support to shutdown the Quakers 6-0.
With the Tigers batting around in the sixth, plating four runs, it took the pressure off of coach Chip Sorber of having to go to Emmitt Yost for closing purposes.
Instead, Beishline was rewarded one last batter to begin the seventh. He got Gavin Sheets to strike out on his 106th pitch of the day, his ninth punchout of the contest.
"It was a tremendous pitching effort from Graydon which we needed," Sorber said. "With all the games coming up, that saved the pitching staff, especially with two games in two days coming up. ... He likes to throw (the curveball) and he throws it for strikes and it was working well today. He's a gamer.
"We have seven wins now and Graydon has been our main pitcher in six of them."
Things didn't start off smooth for Beishline, though, giving Sorber a scare early. The junior needed 27 pitches to get out of the first inning. He pitched into seven full counts with the first three at-bats of the game going into such.
"I was trying to find the zone there (in the first inning)," Beishline said. "I was rushing a little bit and needed to just take a breath and remember that my defense has got me."
From that point, he settled in, keeping the Quakers off-balanced with a nice mixture of a slow but well-moving curveball that sped up his fastball. He allowed just three hits — the first occurring in the fourth inning — walked two and hit one.
When the Quakers did get runners aboard, they were aggressive to the tune of six stolen bases — four by Evan Brokenshire, who worked both walks. Of the six left on base, five were in scoring position.
"We wanted to be aggressive in the zone and on the base paths," Millville coach Bryan Fought said. "Sometimes we take too many pitches as a team, but you have to give Beishline credit — he threw a great game. It's not anything we did, but more of what he did."
Millville's starting pitcher Hayden Weaver was just as stingy early on, traded zeros with Beishline for the first three innings. The Tigers broke through in the fourth with a pair of runs. Jake Remley worked a four-pitch walk to start the frame and got into scoring position on Jake Remley's double down the left field line. The two scored on back-to-back sac-flies by Dalton Koch and Seth Kolb — the Tigers' No. 8 and 9 hitters.
That was the Tigers' recipe for success in the sixth and Remley worked a leadoff, four-pitch walk. The free pass knocked Weaver out of the game.
"Hayden threw a heck of a game. It was probably the best game he's thrown this far for us this year," Fought said. "He didn't walk guys and threw big pitches when he had to. I'm not going to take away anything from him either. ... He was just tired in the sixth, but gutted it out."
Weaver was accountable for three runs on four hits and six walks in five innings. He struck out three on 82 pitches.
Relief pitcher Curtis Whitmoyer didn't slow the Tigers down as they worked another four-pitch walk and four consecutive singles, including RBIs from Koch, Beishline and Ethan Kolb.
The Quakers then turned to Chris McGeehan, who registered a pair of strikeouts to get out of the bases-loaded jam as the Tigers sent 10 to the plate in the frame.
With the offensive damage done, Cam Davis got the last two outs for the Tigers, including a strikeout of Weaver to end things. Sorber was going to turn to Yost, the Tigers' captain, to get the final three outs before they took a commanding lead. Instead, he now starts the day with a fresh arm, one that is being closely monitored.
"We're hoping for 50 or 60 his next time out, but he was going to close tonight when it was two, nothing," Sorber said of Yost. "He's coming off Tommy John surgery and he came early, kind of like (Bryce) Harper. I was told he wouldn't be ready until June and then it got pushed up to early May and then early April. His trainer and specialist said he was ready."
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