By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
Friday's 18-0 Shawnee Heights baseball victory over Topeka West was a game you don’t see very often in the capital city.
Host Shawnee Heights was looking for a win after losing a tough game against Spring Hill in its first game of Friday's quadrangular at the Bettis Family Sports Complex and the T-Birds ran away from the Chargers with a 41 minute, 16-run at bat in the bottom of the second inning.
“If you put the ball in play, good things tend to happen,” Shawnee Heights coach Ryan Schmidt said. “The (plate approach) was definitely better in the West game. In the first two games of the season, we were taking too many third called strikes. We improved on that a bit in this game. We still have a long way to go.
“We are happy to come away with the win.”
Trevor Schattilly pitched a three-inning no-hitter in Friday's 18-0 Shawnee Heights win over Topeka West at the Bettis Family Sports Complex. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Senior right-hander Trevor Schattilly tossed a no-hit game for Shawnee Heights over his three innings of work, striking out six batters while not allowing any walks.
“I’m thankful for our defense and the way everyone played today,” Schattilly said. “I feel like everything was clicking for me on the mound early. The more strikes I threw, my confidence went up. Our energy and confidence helped in the win as well.”
Schattilly’s mindset for this season is simple.
“Just keep throwing strikes and get the dang thing done,” Schattilly said.
Shawnee Heights celebrates a big play in Friday's 18-0 win over Topeka West at the Bettis Family Sports Complex. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Shawnee Heights put the game away with its 16-run second as the T-Birds had four walks, batted through the order twice, were hit by a pitch four times and had six hits that contributed to the explosive inning.
Topeka West had one more chance in the top of the third to keep the game going, but the Chargers were sat down 1-2-3 by Schattilly.
Shawnee Heights' comeback effort falls short
Before the Shawnee Heights and Topeka West game, Shawnee Heights took on Spring Hill in the first game of the quadrangular.
The T-Birds and Broncos were locked in for the first three innings of the game. Good pitching from Heights' Tucker Busenitz, long battles at the plate and great defense kept the game within one run for Shawnee Heights going into the fourth.
But Spring Hill would bombard the T-Birds with seven runs in its next at bat, with the Broncos opening up a 9-1 lead.
Shawnee Heights didn’t give up against a powerful and experienced Spring Hill team and began chipping away at its eight-run deficit.
In the fifth inning, Deacon Pomeroy started the rally by getting walked. Gavin Zuperku would get on base next due to an error at first base. Callen Carver would clear the traffic in the base paths, driving in Pomeroy and Zuperku with a triple. Carver would come home after a groundout.
Shawnee Heights would continue the comeback effort with a two-run sixth inning, with Caden Walker and Pomeroy crossing home plate.
The T-Birds weren’t able to keep the runs coming in the seventh inning and that would be the end of the contest, with Spring Hill defeating Shawnee Heights, 9-6.
“We are still trying to find things to fix in our lineup,” Schmidt said. “It’s early enough in the season where we need to make a good amount of corrections. Our bats are a bit behind on where we want them to be. It was good for us to play a good (Spring Hill) team. We have things we need to work on with both sides of the ball.
“We need to out-hit our mistakes.”
De Soto’s 14-run inning too much for West
Topeka West opened its day against an impressive De Soto team, which would go 2-0 Friday.
Although the contest only three innings, Topeka West had a noteworthy first inning, with the Chargers taking an early 3-0 lead over the Wildcats.
De Soto fought back in the bottom of the first, putting up four runs of its own to take the lead over the Chargers.
Topeka West would have a scoreless second inning and that is when the Wildcats would take over the game with 14 runs.
The Chargers couldn’t answer back in the next half-inning and would go on to lose, 18-3.
De Soto beat Spring Hill 18-7 in its second game.
SHAWNEE HEIGHTS 18, TOPEKA WEST 0
Topeka West 000 – 0
Shawnee Heights 2(16)x – 18
W -- Schattilly (1-0), L-- Noorgard-Petersen (0-1). 2B -- Shawnee Heights: Schattilly, Carver.
SPRING HILL 9, SHAWNEE HEIGHTS 6
Spring Hill 200 700 0 – 9
Shawnee Heights 100 032 0 – 6
W- Richardson (1-0), L- Carver (0-1). 2B: none. 3B: Spring Hill – Richardson, Knowlton. Shawnee Heights – Carver. HR: none.
DE SOTO 18, TOPEKA WEST 3
Topeka West 300 -- 3
De Soto 4(14)x -- 18
