Written by Ethan Silverman

No. 1 SLUH?s record remained unblemished at 20-0 after posting a 4 to 3 victory over No. 22 Vianney on Wednesday afternoon. Junior RHP Mitch Klug (right) went the distance allowing 6 hits and 3 earned runs, while striking out 6. Klug used his arsenal of fastballs, sliders, and a change up to keep the Vianney batters off balance all game long.

SLUH got on the board first, taking a 1-0 lead when DH Andrew Pitts singled, scoring Klug who reached on an error.

Vianney came right back, scoring 2 runs. After Clayton Pfeiffer led the inning off with a single, junior Jake Walters delivered a 2 run home run to left center field to give Vianney a 2-1 lead.

SLUH regained the lead for good in the top of the 4^th inning. With one out, Mitch Klug was hit by a pitch. After a pop out by 3B Willie Folors, 1B Sasha Kuebel crushed a fastball to deep left center for a 2 run homerun, giving SLUH a 4-1 lead.

Vianney would add 1 more run in the bottom of the 4^th after Ryan Snyder?s inside the park homerun, closing the gap to 4-3.

Klug would shut down the powerful Vianney line up for the last 3 innings, allowing only 1 hit to finish out the game.

On his performance today, Klug said, ?At the beginning of the game, my fastball was there and curve was kind of shaky. This is probably the first game this season where I have had my changeup really working; it was one of my best pitches today. I had a lot of guys out in front of it and got a lot of ground balls.?

?We come out to play every game, we know we are the No. 1 team now and everyone wants to knock us off,? Mitch Klug said about SLUH to this point in the season.  ?We are a tight team, the coaches keep us in check and we keep ourselves in check.?

 

In other action around Missouri:

No. 2 Staley was upset, losing 5 to 3 at the hands of Ft. Osage.  Alex Greer had a 3 run homerun to power the Ft. Osage offense.

No. 17 Kickapoo remains hot, defeating West Plains 14 to 3. Kickapoo will go into the Class 4, District 11 as the No. 1 seed.

Glendale won a pair of games today, defeating Waynesville 8 to 4 and Joplin 10 to 5. Trey Watson and Skyler Ladd each had 3 hits and 4 RBIs on the day.

Fair Grove 15-4 beat up on Miller HS 15 to 4. Damein Blanton was the star of the game, picking up the win on the mound and going 4-for-5 at the plate with 2 home runs, a triple, and 3 RBI. Mike Joyce had a perfect day at the plate, going 4-for-4 with a homerun and 3 RBIs.