JANESVILLE — It has been a wonderful week for the Janesville Craig High baseball team.
Faced with playing five games in six days, the Cougars are 60% done and have three victories to show for it.
The third — and second in two days — came against Madison Memorial at Riverside Park on Wednesday afternoon.
Behind the steady pitching of Finn Dillon and clutch two-RBI hits by Drayton Lou and Paul Platts, Craig defeated the visiting Spartans 4-1.
The victory moved the Cougars into a third-place tie in the Big Eight with Madison Memorial at 10-6. Craig is 14-6 overall.
Craig defeated the Spartans 11-5 on Tuesday afternoon at Mansfield Stadium in Madison, and many of the key contributors Tuesday had a hand in Wednesday’s victory, as well.
Lou pitched 6 2/3 innings Tuesday and was in right field Wednesday. Memorial had a 1-0 lead when he came up in the fourth inning with Charlie Claas on third base and Nick Gregg on second.
Spartans starter Caleb Liggon, a talented 6-foot-4 sophomore right-hander who hit a homer in Tuesday’s game, had limited the Cougars to two hits with two outs in the fourth at that point.
Lou hit consecutive dribblers foul down the first base line and had a 2-2 count.
“I was just wasting pitches trying to get mine,” Lou said. “(Liggon) was hitting his spots, but we started to see the ball well.”
Lou got his pitch next.
“He threw me a fastball,” Lou said.
The senior sent a liner over second base that the center fielder dove for. It just escaped his grasp, and Claas and Gregg both raced home to give the Cougars the lead.
Meanwhile, Dillon was escaping minor jams each inning. The junior right-hander pitched six innings and stranded six Memorial baserunners. Memorial scored its run in the first inning and had two runners on with one out.
Dillon then recorded two strikeouts and got out of the inning. Those were his only strikeouts of his six-inning performance, which included five hits and three walks.
“I had a curveball in the first inning, but then I lost it,” Dillon said. “I was pitching to contact, and my boys were making plays behind me.”
Dillon got some breathing room thanks to a clutch hit by Platts in the fifth inning. With one out, Craig designated hitter Tony Greco reached when the throw from the shortstop bounced away from the first baseman.
Nolan Hanel was inserted as a courtesy runner. Hanel stole second, then second baseman Ben Schaffner walked.
Platts then sent a Liggon pitch deep down the left field line, which allowed both Hanel and Schaffner to score. Platts was called out trying to reach third.
With Dillon’s pitch count at 94, Craig coach Josh Shere brought in Claas to pitch the seventh inning. The senior, who had his second consecutive three-hit day, allowed a single with one out but got the final two outs on a strikeout and a fly out to Platts in center.
Shere lauded the pitching performances he has received this week. Junior Blake Bowditch started and pitched six innings Monday in a 9-3 nonconference win over Beloit Memorial. Lou got all but the final out Tuesday against Memorial. Then Dillon came on and threw six solid innings in the win Wednesday.
“Whatever we needed, we got so far,” Shere said. “Our pitchers have really kept us in the games.
“Finn didn’t have his best game today, but our outfield play today was fantastic.”
The Cougars are scheduled to practice Thursday and then have nonconference games against Oregon at Riverside Park on Friday and then at Badger High in Lake Geneva on Saturday.
“Beautiful, right?” Shere said. “Five games in six days.”
But the results have been perfect so far.
“Our guys are showing they are a bunch of resilient kids,” Shere said.
JANESVILLE CRAIG 4, MADISON MEMORIAL 1
Madison Memorial 100 000 0 —1 6 1
Janesville Craig 000 220 x —4 5 2
Leading hitters — Liggon (MM) 2x3, Soldat (MM) 2x3. Claas (JC) 3x4. 2B—Platts (JC), Claas (JC).
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-k) — MM: Liggon L, 4 2/3-5-4-3-3-4; Adams 1 1/3-0-0-0-0-1. JC: Dillon W, 6-5-1-1-3-2; Claas S, 1-1-0-0-0-1.
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