By Ashlea Prouty
MONTICELLO — “Let’s get these bats moving,” Sullivan West Coach Kurt Scheibe exclaimed to his players on Tuesday afternoon when the Bulldogs faced the host Monticello Panthers in a non-league baseball game.
But the SW players were unable to answer the call by Scheibe as they faced Monticello’s star pitcher, Jesse Levine.
Levine allowed just four hits and recorded eight strikeouts to help Monticello (7-5) post a 3-0 victory.
SW pitcher Austin Sauer also had a strong outing as he threw a no-hitter with two strikeouts. However, he walked five batters, which led to a pair of unearned runs for Monticello.
The Panthers took advantage of those walks as Bobby Wagner scored the team’s first run in the bottom of the first inning.
Anthony Gray scored in the bottom of the second to extend Monticello’s lead to 2-0. Gray also contributed defensively as the Monticello center fielder.
The game was delayed in the third inning due to thunder and rain, but play quickly resumed when the storm passed.
In the bottom of the sixth, Shawn Reuss crossed home plate for the Panthers’ third run of the afternoon.
Monticello Coach Mike Marra acknowledged the game as a great pitching matchup and proudly congratulated his team.
“Today our defense and pitching were flawless,” Marra said of his team, which is on a five-game winning streak.
SW (8-4) had four errors in the game.
Scheibe felt his team “didn’t do much to help ourselves today.
“We were sluggish off the bus and had a lot of errors,” he said.
The Bulldogs were slated to play a non-league game at Tri-Valley yesterday. On Monday, SW will visit the Liberty Indians for an Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association (OCIAA) Division IV game.
The Panthers were scheduled to play a non-league game yesterday afternoon at John S. Burke Catholic High School.
This afternoon, the Panthers will host the Tri-Valley Bears in the first game of the John Spear Memorial Tournament.