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Stewart stifles Yankees
The Bulls' southpaw runs his scoreless
innings streak to 24 in Limeport's 3-0 Game 1 win.
LIMEPORT
-- Although Limeport Bulls' skipper Dylan Dando
was not one bit happy with the way his team executed on offense Thursday night,
he could not help but be ecstatic over the performance of his ace -- and 2007
Trico strikeout leader -- Scott Stewart.
"He is the best (pitcher) around," said
Dando. "You are not going to see anyone better than him in an amateur
league when it comes to his approach to pitching. He is fantastic."
Stewart was indeed dominant Thursday
night at Limeport Stadium, tossing a three-hit shutout while striking out seven
as the Bulls won 3-0 to grab a 1-0 lead in the Best-of-3 first round series.
"Smoke" struck out 45 while walking just
3 batters during the 2007 regular season and his 7-strikeout, 0-walk performance
against the Yankees did nothing to hurt that incredible strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Stewart only allowed one runner to reach second base and that only happened
because of a throwing error.
While Stewart had things in
cruise-control from start to finish, Yankees' ace Matt Reppert was wriggling out
of jams in almost every inning, although not all the jams were his fault. The
Bulls had runners in scoring position in every inning.
But it wasn't until the home half of the
third that the Bulls dented the plate. Luke Pile started the frame by getting
hit with a pitch. Nolan Neiman sacrificed him to second and picked up a bonus
when the throw to first was dropped to put two on with no outs. Liam O'Connor
sacrificed both runners up 90 feet and Matt Geiger laced a shot to center that
Chris Watts made an all-out diving catch on to retire Geiger for the second out.
But despite the "web gem", The Bulls took a 1-0 lead as Pile tagged up from
third and scored easily.
Reppert would continue to work out of
jams all the way until the sixth. Pat Lane lined a sharp single to center with
one out and then stole second two pitches later. He advanced to third on a wild
pitch. With the infield drawn in, Ken Serfass drew a walk to put runners on the
corners with one out. Reppert then got a big strikeout to get himself on the
verge of wriggling out of another jam, but Pile would have none of that as lined
a single to left-center to score Lane and make it 2-0 Bulls. Neiman then went
with an outside pitch down the left-field line for a double, scoring Serfass and
it was 3-0 Limeport.
With the way Stewart was pitching, it
may as well have been 10-0.
Stewart did give up a sharp single to
Pete McCauley with one out in the seventh, but a routine 6-4-3 double-play ended
the game one batter later.
Yankees manager Brian Polaha also tipped
his cap to Stewart after the contest.
"He was on top of his game," said Polaha.
"We're going to have find a way to get runs if we want to come back and win this
series. I am concerned about our hitting because Limeport has good pitching."
Winning Game One was obviously important
for Dando.
"Game One is an absolute must in a
three-game series," said Dando. "But we have to do a better job on the offensive end. We're lucky we
have someone like (Stewart) going out on the mound for us."
Neiman was the only player with more than one hit in the game, going 2-for-3 for
Limeport.
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