Blue Dons pitchers shut down rival Red Riders for a 3-0 win
Madonna’s Brayden Miller lays down a bunt for a single. - Andrew Grimm
Madonna starting pitcher Reed Wilharm delivers. - Andrew Grimm
CLOSE PLAY — Madonna shortstop Koleton Grishkevich attempts to apply a tag to Weir High’s Nick DiMatteis at second base during Wednesday’s game. DeMatteis was called safe on the play. - Andrew Grimm
Weir High starting pitcher Evan Kaczmarek fires a pitch - Andrew Grimm
TURNING TWO — Weir High second baseman Teddy Glyptis fires to first for a double play after forcing out Madonna’s Matt Geer during Wednesday’s game. - Andrew Grimm
Madonna’s Brayden Miller lays down a bunt for a single. - Andrew Grimm
Madonna starting pitcher Reed Wilharm delivers. - Andrew Grimm
CLOSE PLAY — Madonna shortstop Koleton Grishkevich attempts to apply a tag to Weir High’s Nick DiMatteis at second base during Wednesday’s game. DeMatteis was called safe on the play. - Andrew Grimm
Weir High starting pitcher Evan Kaczmarek fires a pitch - Andrew Grimm
TURNING TWO — Weir High second baseman Teddy Glyptis fires to first for a double play after forcing out Madonna’s Matt Geer during Wednesday’s game. - Andrew Grimm
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WEIRTON -- Facing a team that had scored 15 runs a day earlier, Madonna pitchers Reed Wilharm and David Connors gave the Blue Dons a gem on the mound against city rival Weir High Wednesday evening.
The duo combined for a two-hit shutout, while the Blue Dons offense did just enough to turn their effort into a 3-0 victory over the Red Riders.
Wilharm started and fired five shutout innings, striking out five and walking just one, while Connors tossed two hitless innings for a six-out save, striking out three.
"Hat's off to Reed and David, they were lights out, they put us in a great spot to win the ballgame," Madonna head coach TJ Miller said. "Weir has a good line up, when they get hot, they can really hit and (Wilharm and Connors) did a great job of shutting them down and we made routine plays behind them. It was an all-around good performance.
"This is a fun game for the kids, a great rivalry game. We know every time that Weir is going give us their best and our guys get up for it.
"Our message to the team coming in was to eliminate the errors and stay within ourselves, if we stay within ourselves I think we're a pretty tough team to beat."
The Dons, now winners of five of their first seven, took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second and it proved to be all the offense they would need. Freshman Maddox Bowen opened the scoring with an RBI single, then Koleton Grishkevich drew a walk with the bases loaded for the second run.
That ended up being the only offense until a Kaiden Wells RBI single in the top of the seventh gave Connors some added insurance.
"We played a lot of small ball, we wanted to put the pressure on them," Miller said. "We need to do a better job of capitalizing on runners in scoring position, we left the bases loaded twice, we had runners at second and third with no outs at least once, so we need to keep working on hitting with runners in scoring position. We did a great job of moving runners, we just need to get them in."
Weir High starter Evan Kaczmarek (six innings, no earned runs) kept the Red Riders in it, but just never got the run support.
The loss dropped the Red Riders to 4-4. They have scored 11 or more runs in all four wins, but been held off the scoreboard twice in the four losses.
"We couldn't hit the ball, give credit to (Madonna)," Weir head coach Dave Cowden said. "We had two hits and three errors. When you have more errors than hits, that's not a very good recipe for giving yourself a chance to win the game. It was not our best game. (Madonna) is a very well-coached team and they did the little things that we didn't.
"It's up and down game to game right now, we need more reps and to play more games. I think that will help us (be more consistent). I think our hitting will come on when we are playing four, five times a week instead of two or three. We've been fortunate to get games in with this turf, but we just haven't had the reps to get where we want to be yet.
"We'll get there, it's still early."
Madonna 3, Weir High 0
M 0-2-0 0-0-0 1 – 3 8 1
W 0-0-0 0-0-0 0 – 0 2 3
MADONNA (5-2): Wilharm (WP, 5IP, 0R, 2H, 5K, 1BB), Connors (SV, 2IP, 0R, 0H, 3K, 1BB) and Wells. Wells 2S, RBI; Lazear S; Connors S; Miller 2S; Bowen S, RBI; Grishkevich RBI.
WEIR HIGH (4-4): Kaczmarek (LP, 6IP, 2R, 0ER, 7H, 2K, 2BB), Williamson (1IP, 1R, 1ER, 1H, 0K, 0BB) and McAllister. Kimmel S; Zanieski S.