Chase County splits with Osage City
Stephen Coleman, Special to the Gazette
Saturday, April 18, 2009
The Chase County baseball team split a doubleheader with the Osage City Indians on Friday night, falling in the opener 6-3 and salvaging a split in Game Two with a 6-0 shutout victory.
The first game had senior pitcher Greg Davis and the Bulldogs in an early hole, allowing five runs in the first three innings.
“I lost my control a little bit,” Davis said. “My breaking pitches weren’t working very well, so hopefully I can pick it up next week.”
Chase County coach Jay Talkington agreed with that observation.
“Greg didn’t have his best stuff pitching tonight,” Talkington said. “He couldn’t get his offspeed stuff over. That’s a big part of his game. He needs to be able to locate his changeup and curveball, and he couldn’t get those into the zone. He battled though. I thought he battled very well just being able to use the fastball. That made it a little easier for (Osage City) to keep putting the ball in play.”
The Bulldogs scored their first run in the third inning, when Johnny Lang was caught in a rundown between first and second base, but stayed there long enough for shortstop Shawn Talkington to reach the plate. They drew closer by scoring two in the sixth inning. A throwing error by the Braves’ left fielder allowed one run, and Davis hit a sacrifice fly that scored Lang.
“I was proud the way we scrapped back in that first game,” Jay Talkington said. “We could’ve only scored that one run, but we got back to a 6-3 score.”
Shawn Talkington was the leading hitter in the first game, going 3-3 with two runs scored.
“The defense made a couple key catching errors, and that cost us,” Shawn said. “We got behind, then we didn’t really take the right approach at the plate. We get down 0-2, 1-2 and we’re still swinging for doubles instead of just getting the ball in play.”
Game Two went much more smoothly for Chase County, as the Bulldogs’ Jim Lauer hit a two-run single in the first inning, which was all Shawn Talkington needed on the hill. Talkington surrendered only four singles while striking out 14 batters over his seven-inning shutout. Osage City loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh, but came up empty. The Bulldog coach felt his son’s presence on the hill loosened up the club and gave them the boost to win.
“The kids just know he’s going to pitch well, and they have a lot of confidence in him,” Jay Talkington said. “That lets them relax a little bit.”
The 14 strikeouts were a season high, but not a career high.
“Shawn had a 17-strikeout game last year,” Jay Talkington said. “He had 20 one time in a tournament in Kansas City when he was 15, in a nine-inning game.”
Davis, who pitched the first game, caught Talkington’s gem.
“He struggled there towards the end,” Davis said. “He threw really well. His breaking pitches were working and his fastball...he was bringing it tonight, they couldn’t touch him.”
Shawn was more down-to-Earth about his pitching.
“My fastball was flat today, I didn’t have my best,” Talkington said. “The curveball was actually good tonight, which is surprising, because I usually don’t have a good one. The fastball was flat, but the curve and change made up for it enough so I’d get ahead with the fastball and mix it up or start with the mix and throw ’em off.”
Talkington wavered in the seventh, with two walks and an infield single loading the bases, but he sneaked out of it with two more strikeouts and an infield popup.
His head coach wasn’t worried about his bout with wildness, though.
“He does that,” Jay Talkington said. “ He’s still a kid, he still gets frustrated and loses the zone once in awhile. I have to go out, talk to him, calm things down, get the mechanics back and he’s usually okay.”
Though the Bulldogs, who were so dominant last season, have had a dramatic turnover in their lineup, they return two All-State pitchers and a coach that knows how to get his team to respond.
“We got a little chewing,” Shawn Talkington said of the break between games. “...and (there’s) a motivational speech with running in our future.”