V-Tigers dominate the Wave

By Don McDermott

Special to the CNO

Jared Heitkamp usually pitches in relief for Versailles  but on Saturday, Coach Ryan  Schlater  called on the  big  right-hander to start against Greenville’s Green  Wave.

“Once Jared settled down, he did what he was supposed to do…throw strikes and let the defense play,” said Schlater, the first-year-coach of the Tigers, after the Tigers prevailed 5-0 against the Wave. Heitkamp allowed back-to-back singles in the third inning before he retired 14 consecutive hitters to close out his complete-game effort. Of the final 14 outs, Jared Bornhorst, the Tigers’ shortstop handled six chances without an error.

“That’s what I expect  our  players to do, hit the ball, pitch  and play defense,” said Schlater, after a brief post-game meeting . The Tigers, now 3-1 this season,  collected 11 hits,  six by the seventh through ninth batters in the order, which pleased Schlater. “That was fun, watching them come through.” Even though they stranded 10 runners and had three others either picked off or thrown out attempting to steal, the Tigers came through with three clutch two-out hits  to  produce three of their five  runs. The Tigers scored three runs on four hits in the fourth to jump ahead 5-0..

“This was my first start since my sophomore season…I usually pitched  in relief  ,” Sis the 6-foot-2, 215-pound Heitkamp. “Tonight, I  got off to a slow start, but  once the  curve started working so good, I was all right.”

Colton Nealiegh, a senior right-hander, was the starter and loser for the Wave, who dropped to 5-3 this season. The Wave was coming off a 14-4 loss at St. Henry and was to play Mississinawa Valley on Saturday afternoon.

Greenville 2-0 in the North division of the Greater Western Ohio Conference, plays Vandalia-Butler, one of the favorites to claim league honors this spring, on Monday Greenville coach Eric Blumenstock was not happy, but reasoned, “This was our fourth game in as many days. I don’t believe we had much left in the tank.”