Shawnee’s Landon Gallegos pitches against Ottawa-Glandorf during Monday’s game at Memorial Park.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
OTTAWA – When the test of Carder Daily’s troublesome elbow didn’t go as well as hoped, Shawnee had an answer waiting in the wings.
Or more precisely, warming up in the bullpen.
After Daily pitched to only four batters in the first inning of Shawnee’s 10-4 baseball win over Ottawa-Glandorf on Monday, Landon Gallegos came into the game and threw an unofficial one-hitter.
The senior right-hander allowed only one hit in seven innings – a fourth-inning single by Brandon Warnecke. He faced just three batters in five of the last six innings, struck out three and walked two.
Add in 10 hits by Shawnee and some numbers O-G would like to forget (six walks, six errors, five wild pitches, two passed balls and four hit batters) and the result was a big win for the Indians.
Gallegos didn’t know he might be pitching Monday until Shawnee got to Ottawa for the game.
“I was planning to pitch tomorrow against Wapak. We got here and he (coach Joe Bender) was like, ‘Be ready today because you might have to come in and throw.’ And I was like, ‘I’m always ready to throw,’ ” he said.
“I came in and got ready, warmed up in the bullpen and felt great from the start. All my off-speeds were located for the most part. Fastballs were looking good – my two-seam and four-seam pretty much located perfectly the whole time. The curveball felt great. I just kept throwing it and they weren’t touching it.”
Bender said, “Gallegos and Daily, coming into the year they were my 1-A and 1-B (pitchers). Daily has been battling a little bit of an elbow issue here and there. He’s kind of been battling through it. There have been good days and bad days. We wanted to get him out there and see what he could do.
“Landon does a great job. He just comes in and throws strikes. He mixes speed. He’s the kid that we know when we put him on the mound we’re going to have an opportunity.”
Despite being held to one hit, O-G was still in the game, trailing only 6-4 after five innings before Shawnee scored one run in the top of the sixth inning without hitting a ball out of the infield and three more on just one hit in the seventh inning.
Eight of the nine batters in Shawnee’s lineup reached base in some way. Daily, who remained in the game after leaving the mound, was 2 for 3, Cole Sunderland was 2 for 3 and Caleb Bacome was 2 for 4.
“We’re starting to barrel the ball better. Our No. 1 and No. 2 hitters (Derek Lyons and Tate Bender) are really good at seeing a lot of pitches and have really good eyes. We’ve got some guys who are hopefully starting to get into a little bit of a groove and hit the ball better. Carder Daily has been hitting the ball really well for us. Blake Reaman has been hitting the ball and the bottom of our order is starting to come along,” Bender said.
Shawnee is 6-6 overall and 2-2 in the Western Buckeye League. Ottawa-Glandorf is 5-6 overall and 1-3 in the WBL.
