Big third inning pushes G-E-T baseball by Blair-Taylor

Just two days after putting up 18 runs in a Coulee Conference win over Westby, the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School baseball team again went off for 18 scores, this time in a nonconference win over Blair-Taylor last week Monday. 

The 18-3 triumph had some similarities to the win over Westby just a few days earlier, but G-E-T coach Scott Hovell said Monday’s win was more efficient and one of the team’s best wins of the young 2022 season. 

“It was crazy how much better we played against Blair than we did against Westby. It was a complete game, and we really got on the guys about the little things. ... that we need to make sure we’re doing every game. So it was good to finally turn the page and start working hard on some of the small things,” he said.

Altoona was set to visit G-E-T on Monday before the Red Hawks traveled to West Salem on Tuesday. Tomah is scheduled to come to town on Friday.

By the time Blair-Taylor (0-4 this year) got on the board with a run in the bottom of the fourth inning, G-E-T had built a 15-0 lead by scoring four runs in the second and nine more in the third, adding one apiece in the first and fourth.

Blair-Taylor needs to rely on small ball and defense if they’re going to win games this season, coach Jesse Lien told the Times, and he thought Monday was a tight affair until the later innings.

“The games have been pretty good, fairly close, and then toward the later innings either you lose focus or you just lose your pitching or whatnot,” he said. “You play really tough through five (innings), and then just have a tough one after that.”

On offense, G-E-T had quality at-bats in 25 of their 36 appearances, good for 69 percent of their tries.

Zach Grams continued his torrid start to the year, finishing 2 for 3 with four RBIs and a walk, scoring three times. Jack Beedle, Ethan Stoner, Cole Williams and Brady Seiling all added a pair of hits as the Red Hawks finished with 13 as a team.

More of an emphasis has been on the mental aspect of offense this season for G-E-T, and Hovell has seen improvement from last year’s team.

“Really the difference between this year to last year is the guys are really having a plan at the plate and they’re having an actual approach, and it’s just helped us out a lot. We’ve been really putting together good at-bats.”

Hovell hopes to see his team get a clutch hit near the bottom of the lineup, though, something that has eluded the Red Hawks to this point in the season. In game one of the doubleheader against Westby, G-E-T had the bases loaded and came away without a run twice.

“The biggest thing is that the big hit has kind of evaded us toward the bottom of our order. We’ve left the bases loaded a ton this year and left a lot of guys on base.”

The Wildcats broke through in the bottom of the fourth inning, as Zack Nitek scored on a fielder’s choice ground ball from Isaiah Washington, who drove in another run in the fifth inning to close the scoring. Jackson Shramek drove in Blair-Taylor’s other run on a sacrifice fly to score Ryan Flynn.

“Our offense just couldn’t turn it on,” Lien said. “With the Beedle kid on the mound we just could not find the middle of the bat on that guy. He mixed his speeds up really well.”

Nitek batted two-for-three with a double and an RBI, and Shramek went two-for-two. 

Ryan Flynn threw three innings for the Wildcats and threw two strikeouts to one walk, allowing nine runs on seven hits. Washington allowed nine runs and six hits in two innings, striking out three and walking five.

Throwing strikes has been an issue for the Red Hawks to start the season, only throwing strikes around 47 percent of the time before Monday’s game. Only 44 percent of first pitches to batters were strikes before Monday, something G-E-T has wanted to improve on.

It was much better against Sparta, and Beedle attacked batters to get outs consistently, Hovell said. In Beedle’s first two pitches, the Red Hawks had two outs.

“We’ve been throwing the ball to try to make guys miss it instead of trying to make them hit it, and we don’t have swing-and-miss stuff on our staff. We just need to pitch to contact and make guys put the ball in play and beat us that way,” Hovell said. “And Jack through three innings, he just came out and really set the tone right away.”

Pitching has been a steady team effort so far this season, and that depth can make a difference if the pitchers start to find the strike zone more often, Hovell thinks. Beedle will likely get more time on the mound after what he has shown through four innings this season.

“If they (G-E-T pitchers) start attacking the zone a little bit better, we’re going to be okay. As far as the depth of our arms, I’m not worried about it. I’m just worried about, gosh, can we go out there and throw strikes?”