By RYAN WALKER
Bluffton got yet another all-important conference victory to remain perfect in the ACAC. This time was at the expense of Adams Central 8-4.
The Tigers (9-5, 4-0 ACAC) just wrapped up an 11-inning, 4-3 thrilling win over Woodlan last week, who was second in the conference last year. The win also brings the Tigers to winning eight of their last nine games.
The Jets (9-6, 1-2 ACAC) were only a game underneath the Tigers in the 2023 ACAC standings, but returned a good chunk of seniors to the roster and were preseason ranked No. 9 in 2A.
The Tigers needed a win to continue their quest for the conference crown in what is a three-team race between them, the reigning champion Heritage Patriots and Jay County, and they did just that.
“I think it’s monumental,” Bluffton head coach Jason Pierce said after the win. “I really do. I mean, you try to not overplay and make (the team) feel stressed just by the size of the game. But you know what, when you’re trying to win a conference, that’s just natural pressure, and it’s good pressure. Those are things that I think benefit you further when you go into the tournament.”
Five runs was all it took for Bluffton to win this game, and it came all at once in the third inning.
Adams Central starter Cade Van De Weg, who entered the game with a 3-1 record in his four starts and 1.00 ER, to no one’s surprise mowed down the Bluffton bats. He struck out the side in the first inning, and only allowed a bloop single and an infield single in the second.
But all the Tigers needed was to get the first baserunner of the third inning on base, and Nick Pastore reached via an error on a groundball to third baseman Keagen Combs. That was enough to get the sticks hot, as the Tigers put up three hits in a row to take a 3-0 lead. Braxton Betancourt smoked an opposite-field double just shy of the wall in left-centerfield for one run, and Brody Lewis countered with a two-RBI single.
Lewis then manufactured a run all on his own on the base paths. The senior catcher swiped all three bags mixed with a few passed balls to score the fourth. Lukas Gehrett’s single was also plated in the next at-bat, driven in by Eli Garrett.
Bluffton’s five-run inning seemingly came out of nowhere, as Van De Weg seemed to be on cruise control. He silenced the bats for two more innings, alllowing only one baserunner more until the sixth.
Pierce attributed his team adjusting to the offspeed and breaking pitches that kept his Tigers off balance. He thought that the first time through the batting order, the team was swinging at pitches outside of the strike zone instead of taking them. After that first time through the order, they started laying off the pitch and hitting fastballs.
“We kind of had to figure that out, get off of (breaking pitches) and make him go to fastballs because then, by the third inning, when we started working into the bottom of our lineup, he started starting us off with a few more fastballs,” Pierce said. “We made a great adjustment there. I can’t take that away from our kids. They just battled their tails off.”
The Jets needed to start scraping across a few runs in the middle innings to answer the Tigers’ big inning. They got one back in the third off of the RBI single by Dakota Perry, and got two back in the fifth with a two-out, two-rbi base knock by Carson Ross.
Those three runs made a now uncomfortable Bluffton dugout that saw its five-run lead shave down to two.
In the sixth, the Tigers needed some insurance runs to pad the lead, so why not go to the freshman in a clutch moment?
Axton Beste climbed into the box with two outs, Gehrett and Easton Blair in scoring position. He sent a line drive hit to centerfield and cushioned the Tigers’ lead to 7-4 and exhaled.
“That’s a huge hit,” Pierce said. “He got himself in a hitter’s count and was able to attack a fastball. I can’t say enough about him as a freshman. He’s stepping up. He loves to lead. He’s not afraid.”
Griffin Morgan finished his day after four innings of work, three runs and eight strikeouts. Cameron Williams came into relieve the fifth and part of the sixth innings.
But when Williams loaded the bases, Pierce went with his third starter A.J. Streveler. The Jets were able to sneak one run back with Trevor Currie’s walk, but a inning-ending double play deflated the big threat.
In the seventh, Gehrett ripped his third single of the game to drive home Lewis to ensure the seventh inning. Streveler delivered and sent the Tigers home with a 4-0 record in the ACAC.
Bluffton will host Jay County (9-6, 3-0 ACAC) at 5 p.m. Thursday, May 2.
ryan@news-banner.com
