BLOOMDALE — Van Buren pitcher Grady Mason threw a four-hit shutout to lead the Black Knights to a 3-0 Blanchard Valley Conference baseball victory over Elmwood Wednesday.
The Royals’ loss, coupled with a 10-9 loss to Riverdale on Monday, puts Elmwood in a hole in the BVC standings with two losses (3-2).
In the BVC, league opponents face each other only once, so every game is crucial.
“You play everybody once, so unfortunately we kind of knew that this was a game that, after Monday, we had to get,” said Elmwood coach Matt Malecha, who saw his team fall to 9-7 overall.
Even Van Buren coach Brooks Lance, who saw his team improve to 11-1 overall and a perfect 4-0 in the BVC, is not a fan of the single round-robin schedule.
“I’ve never really been a fan of the BVC — the one time only,” Lance said. “I wish we could play everybody two times. I think it makes for more competitive baseball. You get to play everybody on your home field.
“Unfortunately, we get one crack at this and the guys came out ready to play and that’s a big win because that is a really good Elmwood team right there.”
Even more devastating for Elmwood was the one-run loss Monday and losses like Wednesday, where the Royals got the bat on the ball, but could not get opportune hits.
Mason, who has good velocity and a solid breaking pitch, got the shutout by pitching to contact. The Royals were getting metal on the ball, but hitting it right to VB fielders, who were not making mistakes.
Mason struck out four, but he did not walk anyone and his defense played error-free baseball. Elmwood’s hitters got contact, but 11 outs were recorded on catches, including three hard hit balls hit deep but directly at an outfielder.
“Today is one of those days, an April day where it’s cold and the wind is blowing in,” Malecha said. “We hit the balls hard but unfortunately they didn’t go anywhere.
“Give Van Buren a lot of credit — they made plays. I was happy with our approach for the most part but at the same time, we just couldn’t get anything going offensively and their pitcher threw very well.”
Lance was worried that Elmwood was going to eventually find a gap, or string some hits together, but Mason remained poised on the mound no matter what happened.
“I was talking to (my assistant coach) in the third inning and we got to that point where we had that conversation where, ‘Wow, these guys are doing a good job putting the ball in play,’” Lance said.
“I was a little bit nervous there once the later innings came in that they were going to keep finding the barrels and maybe hit some gaps, but Grady did a great job pounding the zone.
“I think he was around 70% strikes tonight, he kept them off balance a little bit on certain off speed pitches and counts and just did a really good job for us. He’s been doing a good job for us most of the season. He’s done a good job of hitting his spots all year. Today was big.
“He ended up hitting that guy (Aiden Marsh) in the last inning, but up until that he didn’t have a walk. He had real good command of his fastball, slider, off-speed — he did well tonight pounding the zone.”
Getting base hits for Elmwood were Andrew Holland, Luke Armbruster, Colton Bradfield, and Landon Snow.
Elmwood starting pitcher Jimmie Palmer struck out nine, walked three, allowed seven hits and two earned runs in 6.1 innings.
“I was happy with how the guys competed,” Malecha said. “I thought Jimmie threw great, we just made a few errors behind him that let in a few runs.
“When the weather is like this and every run counts, you can’t give a good team like Van Buren extra outs and unfortunately, and we did that.”
All of Van Buren’s offensive prowess was provided by the first four batters in the lineup, who combined went 8-for-14.
Palmer and reliever Tanner Shaffer combined to strike out 10, but all were in the five through nine spots in the Van Buren batting order. Palmer even struck out the side twice facing the bottom part of the order.
For VB, James Patton was 3-for-3 with a walk and RBI, Brady Lance was 2-for-4 with two stolen bases and two runs scored, Daniel Brock was 2-for-4 with an RBI, and Cohen Stevens doubled and reached on a walk.
