Down 9-1 and with runners abound, Trenton Head Coach Andy Hight made a pitching change. He had planned on throwing four pitchers – one inning each – but Macon had threw a wrench into that thinking in the first session of a jamboree held on Monday night at Burleigh Grimes Field.
Enter Chase Otto, a freshman who put out the fire, allowing just one inherited runner to score while getting the Trenton defense off the field. He followed up the fireman effort on the hill by finding his way on base and stealing third, then making a pair of strong plays at third, when Trenton returned to the field.
“I feel like it went pretty good,” Otto said of his performance in the first of two sessions Trenton competed in at the jamboree on the Bulldogs’ home field. “I feel like there are probably a lot of areas I can still improve in, but I’m just grateful I got the chance to go out there. It was a little nerve-racking (on the pitching mound), but it was what had to be done. I just tried my best.”
Otto’s highlights were magnified on a night when the Bulldogs showed there is still a lot of work to be done by the second-year program. Trenton dropped the opening session with Macon, 12-2, before being shut out by Chillicothe in their second session, 12-0.
Trenton’s match-up with Macon was doomed early-on as the Bulldogs scuffled to find the strike zone in the first two innings. Walks and timely hits allowed Macon to take a 10-1 lead through two innings. But after Otto took over to get Trenton out of the second, the Bulldogs looked okay the rest of the way. Avery Cooksey fired a hitless inning in the third, aided by Otto’s two plays at third base, and Jaren Whitney allowed just two runs in the fourth inning – the final frame of the session.
“We just started bad, but we came back and played better,” Hight said. “We had some guys come in – Chase did a really good job, Cooksey did a really good job and I thought Whitney did a nice job. We didn’t get a whole lot going offensively, we made some mistakes on the base paths, but that’s one of those things that just requires some practice and time and those are two things we haven’t had a whole lot of yet. There were more positives than negatives even though the final score wasn’t what we wanted.”
Trenton’s lone run came in the bottom of the first when Cooksey walked to lead off the inning, stole second and third before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Colton Colston.
vs. CHILLICOTHE
The Bulldog offense couldn’t get anything going in the second session, netting just one hit off the bat of Hunter Beverlin, who was one-for-one at the plate. Trenton’s pitching continued to do well, but the defense wasn’t able to back the arms up.
Of the 12 runs Chillicothe scored against Trenton, only three were earned. Sam Schilling, Hunter Dugan and Beverlin all threw well on the hill, but didn’t get the defensive help they needed to get Trenton off the diamond.
“Our biggest problem was our defense and part of that was we moved guys around to different positions that they haven’t played as much,” Hight said. “Part of that is my fault for moving guys around, but those guys need the practice at those spots.
“I thought our pitching did a pretty good job. Sam threw well for his first outing, Dugan threw the second inning and only gave up one earned run even though there were several who scored in the inning. We just didn’t play well enough behind him. Beverlin came in and kind of cleaned that inning up and did a nice job. Overall, we would have liked to have seen better, but it’s March 12, not April 12. The other thing to put into perspective is the caliber of programs we are playing. (Chillicothe and Macon) are both really good programs.”
UP NEXT
The Bulldogs officially start the season on Saturday, playing host to North Harrison in what will now be a doubleheader with the Shamrocks on St. Patrick’s Day. East Harrison was also scheduled to be in attendance, but the Bobcats have bowed out so, as was the case last year, Trenton will take on North Harrison twice.
The first pitch of game one is scheduled for 11 p.m. at Burleigh Grimes Field.