Lima Locos righthander Thomas Howard pitches against the Muskegon Clippers during Wednesday’s game at Simmons Field.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
LIMA — Starting pitcher Thomas Howard’s statistics in the Lima Locos’ 5-2 win over Muskegon on Wednesday night at Simmons Field included five innings pitched, only one run and four hits allowed, three walks, two strikeouts and one interception.
While the interception wasn’t an official stat, it might have been the most talked-about play in the game. Certainly, it was the most unexpected play.
With the Locos leading 5-1 in the top of the fifth inning and Muskegon runners on first base and third base, the Clippers tried a double steal.
When Locos catcher Tyler Herron started to throw to second base, the runner on third base took off toward home plate.
But he never got there because Howard, who was moving toward the plate, stuck his glove in front of the throw, caught the ball, and flipped it to a teammate. The runner was caught halfway between third base and the plate and eventually tagged out after a rundown.
And, no, none of that was planned.
“That was not planned at all. I just caught the ball, I saw he (the baserunner) was running down (the baseline) and I just ran to him. Tyler intended to throw it to second. It was something that was just freak,” Howard said.
“Coach asked me, ‘Did you do that on purpose?’ and I said, ‘No, I did not.’ It was kind of just something that happened.”
The Locos (13-10) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Justin Gorski led off with a single, Lou Fujiwara doubled to score him, Blake Bowen singled and Sebastian Alexander singled to score Fujiwara.
They added two more runs in the second inning when Landon Tate singled and the next batter, Bo Shinkle, followed with a home run to make it 4-0. Fujiwara’s sacrifice fly, which scored Shinkle in the fourth inning, made it 5-0.
“We played well in all three facets. Pitching came ready to go tonight. We came out swinging. That was one of the best defensive games you’ll see. Like I’ve been telling these guys all summer when we put it all together we’re going to be tough to beat,” Locos coach Chad Ehrnsberger said.
Muskegon (13-7) got its first run in the fifth inning on a single, a walk and another single. The Clippers’ other run came on an eighth-inning home run by Justin Osterhouse.
Howard recorded his second win of the season in five decisions and limited a good hitting team to one run in his five innings even though he didn’t think he had his best fastball on Wednesday.
“The velo (velocity) was not there today but I just kind of learned how to pitch. I used a fastball, slider, change up mix and mixed it up a little bit. I’ve kind of got everything working together and it’s good,” he said.
Ehrnsberger said, “To do that without your best stuff against a team like that says a lot about him as a pitcher. He’s right, he didn’t have his best stuff but he battled and hopefully, he learns from it about how good he can be.”
Recent Bath graduate Skyler Lhamon pitched the final four innings and got a save. He allowed three hits, one run, did not walk a batter and struck out one in those four innings.
The Locos will attempt to win the three-game series against Muskegon today at Simmons Field in a game with a 5:05 p.m. start time.
Box score (r-h-e)
Muskegon Clippers 000010010 2-7-1
Lima Locos 22010000x 5-9-2
Muskegon Clippers 2 (ab-r-h-rbi)
Carson McCoy 4-1-1-0, Preston Leon 2-0-0-0, Justin Osterhouse 4-1-3-2, Diego Pena 3-0-0-0, Ashten Wong 4-0-1-0, Braden Benton 4-0-0-0, Gabe Bonemer 3-0-1-0, Cooper Hums 1-0-0-0, Cole Mason 4-0-0-0, Ethan Scheib 4-0-1-0, Totals: 33-2-7-2
Lima Locos 5 (ab-r-h-rbi)
Justin Gorski 4-1-2-0, Lou Fujiwara 1-1-1-2, Blake Bowen 3-0-1-0, Sebastian Alexander 4-0-2-1, Kaden Brown 3-0-0-0, Brooks Wright 4-0-0-0, Tyler Herron 4-0-0-0, Landon Tate 4-1-1-0, Bo Shinkle 4-2-2-2, Totals: 31-5-9-5.
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so)
W — Thomas Howard (2-3) 5.0-4-1-1-3-2
L — Benjamin Kochany (0-1) 4.0-8-5-5-1-1
S — Skyler Lhamon (1) 4.0-3-1-1-0-1
