“It’s a great day to pitch,” Heintzman said. “I try not to think about the cold as much as I can. I was going around telling my team before the game, ‘It’s sunny and 75 out here, fellas,’ trying to keep their minds in the right place and make sure that the weather doesn’t affect how we play.”
The Campbell University recruit struck out seven, walked nobody and allowed no earned runs in an 82-pitch effort. The right-hander retired the last 11 Falcons he saw.
It was the Greater Catholic League Coed Division opener for both squads.
“That’s what we’ve grown to expect from Logan,” Badin coach Brion Treadway said. “He’s definitely improved every year he’s been with us. He keeps raising the bar, and he’s doing a great job showing the younger guys what it looks like to be the man.”
David Begley’s two-out single plated Jack VanSteenkiste in the second inning for the Rams (4-1), and pinch-runner Andrew Walsh scored in the fourth inning on an FHS throwing error.
Alan Nix beat out an infield single in the third for the Falcons (4-3) and came home on a Badin error.
Fenwick looked ready to tie the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth when Keegan Corbett singled and made it to third on an errant throw by the visitors.
But Falcons coach Pete Maus gambled with no outs and sent Corbett on a suicide squeeze attempt. Matt Davenport couldn’t get his bat on the ball and Corbett — Fenwick’s last base runner of the day — was tagged out.
“At that point, Logan’s around the plate,” said Maus, who was denied his 200th career victory (he’s 199-136 in 10 seasons at Talawanda and three at FHS). “We banked on the fact that he was going to give us a pitch where we could get something down, and Matt handles the bat really well.
“It didn’t work out, but I’d do it again and again and again and again. Because that’s how we practice, that’s how we teach, and that’s how we should play.”
Jon Snyder and Nix combined on a six-hitter for Fenwick, giving up three hits apiece. Snyder went the first four innings and took the loss, striking out four and walking three.
Maus was especially pleased with Nix, who had three strikeouts and no walks.
“Alan was really coming after the hitters,” Maus said. “I think Jon was too finesse-oriented as opposed to being aggressive, and that caused his pitch count to get up.”
The FHS coach praised Heintzman’s performance.
“He threw a complete game in this stuff and did a real nice job,” Maus said. “I thought he was really aggressive with both his fastball and curveball. I thought we could’ve/should’ve battled a little bit more at the plate. Getting aggressive up there is something we’ve battled for three years, looking fastball and hitting fastballs and trying to get into plus counts and battling when we’re in minus counts.”
Heintzman felt like he had his entire arsenal of pitches working. Treadway wanted to keep him at 80 pitches and said Cameron Madden was ready to come in when Cameron Gallo grounded out to end the game.
“I can’t say anything was working more than the other,” Heintzman said. “I was just feeling good. The fastball was locating, and I could locate with all my other offspeed pitches as well. Our mind-set today was just be the best we can be. It’s always an emotional game when we play Fenwick in anything. Everybody knows that.”
The Rams’ pitching has been outstanding through five games. Their team earned run average is 0.20, and Treadway is hopeful that Seth Klaiber (torn ACL in football) will get his medical release this week and can add another arm to the mound corps.
Badin’s offense hasn’t been nearly as dominating, averaging four runs per game with a .265 batting average.
“The offense is going to struggle on cold days like this,” Treadway said. “We knew it was going to be a pitchers’ battle. I think all three pitchers pounded the zone today and did a good job.
“Our identity is pitching. We’re going to keep grinding it out at the plate and keep getting better.”
Fenwick’s offense has been a bit of a roller coaster. The Falcons have scored in double digits three times while tallying two or less runs on four occasions.
“We’ve had some big innings carry us. We’ve got to learn to grind out an inning,” Maus said. “We’re not necessarily struggling. We’ve just got to be more consistent.
“We’ve got the dreaded ‘P’ word. We’ve got a lot of potential. I think for the most part we play the game the right way. It’s just a matter of executing. We’ve got a good group of kids. We’ve just got to take that next step of not just accepting what happens to us, but making things happen for us. That’s kind of why I squeezed. I wanted us to be able to handle a tight situation and get that run. We’ve got to learn to be able to do that.”
The teams will square off again Wednesday at the Rams’ Alumni Field. The pitching matchup is slated to be Badin’s Nick Taylor vs. Fenwick’s Drew O’Brien.
Badin 010-100-0—2-6-2
Fenwick 001-000-0—1-2-1
WP — Logan Heintzman (2-0); LP — Jon Snyder (1-1). Records: Badin 4-1, 1-0 GCLC Central; Fenwick 4-3, 0-1 GCLC North
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