GLANDORF – Ottawa-Glandorf’s Austin Horstman usually controls the action from behind the plate.
But in a non-league game on Monday, Horstman was on the mound.
Horstman threw plenty of strikes in a 5-2, two-hit O-G victory over Miller City at the Ottawa-Glandorf Sports Complex.
Horstman threw shutout ball for the first six innings before giving up two runs, both earned, in the seventh inning. He struck out seven and walked three in his complete-game victory.
“It was a little something different today,” Horstman said of his second start of the year. “It felt good. … My fastball was my main pitch today.”
The right-handed Horstman threw his fastball and breaking ball consistently for strikes. He also mixed in what he called a knuckleball.
Horstman threw 90 pitches, 57 for strikes.
“He was able to locate his curveball, which kept them off balance,” O-G coach Nick Miller said. “He just had enough on the fastball to sneak it by them. That’s the key. If you can throw both pitches for strikes, you can be effective. …. He was ahead of hitters all day.
“He was a little tired (at the end), but he wanted to finish. He battled all day and he deserved to finish it.”
The game was scoreless until the Titans put up five runs in the home sixth.
Miller City scored two in the seventh when it took advantage of a tiring Horstman, who walked two in the inning.
O-G stands 11-2. Miller City is 6-2.
Miller City right-hander Kelvin Stechschulte threw five shutout innings before giving up five in the sixth.
With one out in the sixth, O-G’s Logan Miller walked and Logan Balbaugh singled to second. Nathan Arrington walked to load the bases.
With Miller City’s third baseman playing in, O-G’s Grant Fuerst hit a shot down the third-base line and into the left-field corner for a bases-loaded, two-run double. That gave O-G a 2-0 lead.
Evan Balash hit a hard chopper down the first-base line for an RBI single to make it 3-0. Owen Hiegel’s slow-rolling, RBI single to third gave O-G a 4-0 lead.
O-G capped off the five-run inning when Mike Bowers put down a squeeze bunt to bring home Balash from third and give the Titans a 5-0 lead.
For O-G, Hiegel went 2 for 4 and Balbaugh was 2 for 3. Balash was 2 for 2. Fuerst had two RBI.
Stechschulte worked 5 1/3 innings and gave up five runs, all earned, on nine hits. He struck out two and walked four. Stechschulte threw 96 pitches, 58 for strikes.
“Pitching starts with not giving up free passes and when we give up free passes, then it seems like you get guys on and things happen,” Miller City coach Dusty Pester said. “O-G did a good job of capitalizing, which we did not tonight. I thought they made a few mistakes that put us in good position and we didn’t capitalize on.”
Corbin Niese’s two-out, two-run single in the top of the seventh brought Miller City within 5-2.
Horstman then struck out the next batter to end it.
Horstman’s big moment came in the top of the sixth when Miller City’s first two runners reached on errors by the O-G shortstop.
In a scoreless game, with runners at second and third and no outs, Horstman struck out the next two hitters. He then got Justin Schnipke to ground out to short to wiggle free of trouble and keep the game at 0-0.
“It got a little nerve-wracking so I knew I had to make the pitches,” Horstman said. “I just wanted to pick up the shortstop.”
O-G threated in the fourth when it was 0-0 and had a runner at third with two out. But Fuerst flew out to a diving Cole Niese in center to end the inning.
Hiegel had a good game at second for O-G with two putouts and four assists.
“Both teams played fairly well, defensively, with the exception for our one inning,” Miller said.
The Titans (3-1 in the Western Buckeye League) return to WBL action in a key game against Celina at 5 p.m. today at O-G.
.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}
