By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
Hoping to turn their season around, Washburn Rural baseball needed a solid outing from starting pitcher Zach Sharshel Tuesday.
After getting staked to a 4-0 lead, Sharshel withstood a rough fourth inning to give the Junior Blues a 6-4 non-league win over Shawnee Heights at Bettis Family Sports Complex.
Washburn Rural senior Zach Sharshel picked up the pitching win in the Junior Blues' 6-4 road win at Shawnee Heights Tuesday. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Washburn Rural's Ty Weber (32) and Kyle Walker celebrate during Tuesday's 6-4 win over Shawnee Heights. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Washburn Rural entered the contest with a 4-11 record but hoping to turn things around after some close losses recently, including a one-run loss to Olathe South, the top-ranked team in 6A.
“We needed this win,” said Washburn Rural coach Jay Mastin. “We have something like six one-run losses. So, we’ve been battling. We’ve been in these games. We just haven’t found a way to win those early on.
“We gained a lot of confidence from the Olathe South game and we’re trying to build off that one. We talked about it coming into this game, and I think we did carry it over.”
The Junior Blues broke out of the gate with a four-run first inning, punctuated by a bases-loaded double by Branton DeWeese. The visitors would add single runs in the second and fourth innings to stretch the lead to 6-0.
Sharshel cruised with the lead until he hit a snag in the fourth. The senior gave up a hit batter and a couple of walks to load the bases. Shawnee Heights tagged him for back-to-back singles and put up four runs, closing the gap to 6-4.
Sharshel held it together, limiting the damage. He then worked a quick fifth and sixth innings.
“That’s part of this game,” the Cloud County Community College commit said of the rough inning. “No matter if you’re the best pitcher in the world, there’s going to be times when they hit you and you give up four. But the biggest part of this game is being able to rebound mentally.”
Mastin said he didn’t really consider pulling Sharshel out during the fourth.
“Not really. We thought we could get out of it and get another inning out of him,” Mastin said. “It worked out and we were able to turn it over to Drew Florence in the seventh.”
Florence got three quick outs to finish off the T-Birds in their last at-bat. Mastin praised Sharshel for leading the Junior Blues to a much-needed win.
“It’s what we needed out of him,” Mastin said. “We needed him to go deep into the game and give us a chance to win. We got the four-run inning to start things off which helped. He was cruising except for that one inning.”
“I’ve kind of got the mindset that one run is all I need. But when we put up four (runs in the first inning), it’s a great boost of confidence to a starting pitcher,” Sharshel said. “I didn’t have my best outing on the mound, but still got the job done, doing what I knew I needed to do. I got great plays behind me, and we got timely hits when we needed them to. We had probably one of our best hitting games of the year.”
The Junior Blues were led at the plate by junior Kyle Walker, who blasted a single and two doubles in the first three innings.
WASHBURN RURAL 6, SHAWNEE HEIGHTS 4
Washburn Rural (5-11) 410 100 0 — 6 10 0
Shawnee Heights (9-7) 000 400 0 — 4 6 3
Sharshel, Florence (7) and Johnson. Ulrich, Holly (5) and Cole. W — Sharshel. L — Ulrich. 2B — Washburn Rural: Walker 2, DeWeese.
