By Ted Waddell
JEFFERSONVILLE — No doubt about it, making mental mistakes in a baseball game can hurt you.
In Monday afternoon’s Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association (OCIAA) Division IV baseball game at the Lions’ Field in Jeffersonville, the home team Bulldogs of Sullivan West routed the Liberty Indians, 28-3.
But the visitors, while outmatched by the Bulldog bats, didn’t help their own cause either. The Indians repeatedly threw the ball around in the infield, fumbled catches in the outfield and allowed several SW runners to cross the plate on those miscues.
“We seem to be making the same mistakes over and over, and that’s got to change,” said Liberty Coach John Wilhelm, who is now back at the helm after sitting out a couple of games while recovering from knee surgery.
“You can live with physical errors, but the mental mistakes are the ones that bother you the most.”
Brad Reimer picked up the win for SW (8-3, 3-1 Div. IV) by pitching five strong innings. He was relived by in the top of the sixth by Ryan Alsdorf.
Reimer also contributed to the Bulldogs’ offense. He blasted a home run in the bottom of the second inning. He added a double later in the contest and finished the day with six RBIs.
Logan Grishaber and Eric Minton each recorded a pair of doubles for SW. Grishaber had four RBIs, while teammates Alsdorf, Lucas Bauer, Mike Durkin, Minton and Gaston Owen each had two RBIs.
The Bulldogs started the game by scoring two runs on three hits in the bottom of the first inning. They followed that opening salvo with four runs on six hits in bottom of the second to take a 6-0 lead.
In the top of the third, Liberty (3-8, 3-4 Div. IV) replied with a run, but then their bats fell silent until the sixth frame.
At its turn at bat in the third inning, SW posted seven runs on three hits.
The Bulldogs then had a really big fifth inning as they sent 12 runners across the plate on 10 hits.
In the top of the sixth, the Indians sent two runners home on three hits.
With the score 28-3 in their favor, the Bulldogs didn’t bat in the bottom of the seventh inning,
Liberty’s top hitter was Paul Rapoli, who had two doubles.
Rapoli, Ricky Franke and Tino Casiano were the Indians’ pitchers in the game.
“Reimer pitched well, [and] we had hits all the way up and down the lineup,” SW Coach Kurt Scheibe Jr. said. “Reimer and Logan [Grishaber] are pitching well, now we’re trying to get innings out of the other guys, getting them to step up.”
Scheibe is working to fill his third pitching spot. He’s sending Alsdorf, R.J. Rosa, Minton and Austin Sauer to the mound in order to “see who we go with.
“We have a bunch of options for the third spot,” Scheibe explained. “But on the bench, we don’t have a lot of options. Sometimes two or three are there, depending on the game.”
His take on the season?
“Good so far,” Scheibe said. “We go game by game, week by week. We don’t look too far ahead.”