BELOIT—Jeff Clowes acknowledged that the Beloit Turner lineup’s bats have continued to be strong up and down the order.
And the head coach noted that his baseball team’s fielding has come a long way from the start of the season.
But, Clowes said that what has really put his squad over the top amid a lengthy conference winning streak is the exceptional growth he has seen from his pitchers on the mound.
That trend continued on Thursday evening as Ethan Halon worked around nine hits to allow just two earned runs while racking up nine strikeouts in a 9-2 win over Edgerton.
“Ethan was phenomenal tonight,” Clowes said. “He’s been sick the past couple of weeks and has been in and out of the lineup. Tonight was his first start since two weeks ago and he was lights out.”
The strong performance upped the Trojans’ RVC Rock win streak to six-straight games. It also secured a season sweep of Edgerton after Turner (8-4, 6-2) bested it 7-2 on Tuesday.
Clowes said that the Crimson Tide’s unremarkable record of 2-7 overall didn’t matter coming in.
“You can throw records away,” he added. “Edgerton and Turner has a long history. Coach (Mike) Gregory does such a good job over there, he always has. They have a lot of pride in what they do and they play great baseball. We just tell our guys. ‘Hey, it's our turn to write our chapter.' It's a long story and every Turner-Edgerton matchup has a chapter in it.”
Halon seemed determined to be the author of Thursday’s chapter.
The junior righty allowed two-out singles to Logan Hanson and Noah Towns before getting a groundout. The Crimson Tide then struck in the second with an RBI double from Bryce Appel and again in the third off a one-run single from Chris Burns.
Halon got Appel to strike out to end the third and strand a pair of runners. He didn’t allow another run through the final four innings.
“I was just trying to throw it in there and trust my defense,” Halon said. “We have a really good defense. Jayden Piccione in center and Andy Buckley at shortstop, I really trust both of those guys. I know that if the ball's hit, they're going to make the play.”
Halon threw a 1-2-3 fourth inning, stranded a runner in the fifth after a two-out double, induced a double play after a leadoff single in the sixth and then closed the game with a clean seventh.
“That's the growth in him,” Clowes said. “Just finding ways as a pitcher to get through the innings where maybe you don't feel everything and keep working to the next inning and getting better as the game goes on. He competed tonight.”
Out of Halon’s 101 pitches, 70 of them were strikes as he allowed just one walk.
“My curveball was working pretty well,” he said. “I was able to get ahead in counts with it.”
After a shaky first time through the order against Edgerton thrower Hanson, the Trojans exploded for six runs in the third.
Leadoff hitter Piccione singled and later came around to score on a wild pitch. Zack Ries hit a two-run single on a line drive to center to put Turner ahead 3-2. Halon then welcomed Crimson Tide reliever Colton Kurt by smacking a two-run double into left. A sixth run came home on an error.
“Our first time through the order, we weren't really happy,” Clowes said. “I just don't think we were in rhythm right away. “And that's credit to Edgerton's pitching. Good pitching is keeping hitters off balance. But that's also a testament to our guys. They did a nice job solving the puzzle.”
A two-run single from Fernando Tillery made it 8-2 in the fifth and a one-run single from Brody Berg put it at 9-2.
Clowes was particularly happy with his seven and eight hitters as Zack Ries went 3-for-3 with two runs while Halon had the big double in the third.
And Halon was complimentary of Ries.
“Zack is awesome,” he said. “He’s a great senior leader, he’s always hustling, even with his knee. “He injured it and he's got a meniscus problem, but he just really goes out there and gets the job done.”
The first-place Trojans, up a half game on second-place Brodhead/Juda (5-2), will next host Whitewater on Friday at 4:45 p.m.
• LINESCORE:
BELOIT TURNER 9, EDGERTON 2
Edg 011 000 0 — 2 9 4
BT 006 021 — 9 9 0
Leading hitters: Edg, Burns 3x3, 1 Run, 1 RBI; Brett Appel 2x3, 1 Run; Bryce Appel 1x2, 1 RBI. BT, Ries 3x3, 2 Runs, 2 RBI; Piccione 2x4, 2 Runs; Tillery 2x3, 1 Run, 2 RBI; Halon 1x4, 1 RBI; Ward 1x4.
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Edg, Hanson (L) 2.2-2-5-1-5-2, Kurt 0.0-1-1-0-1-0, Kittleson 2.1-4-2-2-1-1, Appel 1.0-2-1-1-1-1. BT, Halon (W) 7.0-9-2-2-1-9.
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