By Travis Smola
The Vicksburg varsity baseball team used a little baserunning trickery to score the go-ahead run in its recent nightcap game against the Paw Paw Red Wolves.
The game ended up being a tight one. Paw Paw scored first. Brandon Shoffner hit a big double to center field in the top of the second and then advanced to third on a dropped pitch. Liam Cohrs then hit an RBI groundout to first that tied things up 1-1.
In the top of the fifth, Carter Brown hit a big double and was on third with another runner on first when the Bulldogs induced a balk call on the Red Wolves’ pitcher. It allowed Brown to advance for the winning run. The game was called in the top of the sixth due to lightning.
A balk call? “Basically, the runner, as soon as the pitcher comes set, and he’s in the set position, the runner at first base takes off, and we’re trying to induce a balk from the pitcher,” Head Coach Brian Deal said. “You know, make a different movement rather than going right to the plate. And he (the pitcher) buckled his knee, and kind of dropped like that. And what that does is it’s a dead ball, and everyone moves up one base with the box.”
The Red Wolves were unexpectedly surprised by the unusual and rare play, but the Bulldogs have regularly practiced it in preparation for the right in-game scenario.
“We try to take advantage of the situation, especially when the game is tight like that,” Deal said. “So, once we got a guy to third base with one out, we tried to run a play that we practice, and luckily, it worked out for us.”
In the first game, the Bulldogs forced Paw Paw’s top pitcher into over 100 throws in just the first four innings. This eventually led to Vicksburg scoring 17 total runs in the game. The Red Wolves attempted a comeback but eventually ran out of batters. The final was 17-7.
“I give credit to our hitters there because they did a good job working that count, and getting the pitch count up so that he had to come out of the game after the fourth inning,” Deal said.
The team sits slightly above .500 in the early part of the season. However, some of their early season losses came against tough Division One opponents like Portage Central. Another challenge has been the weather. Good baseball weather still hasn’t shown up. The contests against Paw Paw were marked by wind and cold temperatures.
Deal thinks pitching may be one of the more significant challenges for Vicksburg this year. The team should have no issues in scoring, but it also faces a more demanding schedule than usual this year.
“We have a really good 1-2 combination as far as pitchers go, but we’re going to have to have some other guys step up because I feel like we can play defense and we can score runs,” Deal said. “So, that’s going to be the challenge for us with the tough league schedule with a bunch of conference games coming up in a short period of time.”
