The Pilot News - Halasz pitches LaVille past Cavs

“Glenn really did it for us today,” LaVille head coach Gene Baker, whose team won a tournament at South Central Saturday, said. “He hasn’t pitched a lot this year; he’s been our utility man. He started the season at first base. We had trouble at shortstop, so we moved him there. He’s been sucking up everything, so we’ve kept him at shortstop.
“We were in a tourney over the weekend,” he added. “We used quite a few arms, so we started Glenn today. We just wanted him to throw strikes.”
And throw strikes, he did. Halasz worked ahead in the count all afternoon, effectively changing speeds and pounding the outside corner against Culver’s right-handed-dominated lineup. In fact, he struck out the side in the fourth inning on 10 pitches — all strikes.
He allowed both hits — a rope to center by freshman Zoe Bauer and Drew Cultice’s seeing-eye single through the right side of the infield — during the third inning, but rolled up a groundball double play to third baseman Mike Latson to emerge unscathed.
“(Halasz) has a real nice curveball,” Baker said. “One of the things we’ve been working on with all of our pitchers is throwing a change up. He definitely changed speeds well, and he was able to locate his pitches.”
Halasz also flashed some pretty good leather. Following a first-inning leadoff grounder through the wickets at third base, Halasz took matters into his own hands. He assisted on three straight putouts, including back-to-back fielder’s choices to cut down the lead runner at second.
The Lancers gave Halasz all the offense he needed with two runs in the first, and three more in the second. LaVille chased Culver starter Tony Leyva after 1 1-3 innings, tagging the Cavs’ ace for five runs — four earned — on seven hits.
Leyva, a right-handed curveball specialist, struggled with his command and paid a steep price. He consistently fell behind batters and left several curveballs up over the plate.
“Tony didn’t have any success with his location at all,” Culver Community head coach Mike Elliott said. “The curveball is normally his pitch, but he was leaving it high, it just was not breaking. If you hang a curveball, it’s going to get hit hard, and LaVille had three or four extra-base hits.”
Bauer provided the Cavs with a bright spot, tossing 3 1-3 scoreless innings in relief. He stranded both runners he inherited in the second, allowed just a single hit, struck out a pair of batters and walked four.
“We had our ace on the mound to start the game,” Elliott said. “Then we bring in a freshman who’s only logged 13 innings this year — and before that he’d never pitched in his life — and he did a nice job.”
LaVille inflicted much of its damage with the top of the order. Dylan Heims and Cody Coblentz — the top two men in LaVille’s batting order — reached base three times apiece. Heims scored twice and knocked in a run; Coblentz went 2-for-2, including a first-inning RBI single to plate the first run.
“That actually carried over from this weekend,” Baker said of his team’s hot start with the bats. “We’ve talked about getting on that first pitch, because a lot of times it’s going to be the best one you’re going to see. (Leyva) has a real nice curveball. We stayed on it and hit it. We have a little trouble with slower pitching. When Zoe came in, the change in speeds messed up our timing.”
Heims reached on an error to lead off the first inning, stole second, advanced to third on a throwing error and scored on Coblentz’s solid single to left.
Coblentz moved up 90 feet on a botched pick-off attempt, trotted to third on a wild pitch and scored when Halasz served a 3-2 hanging curveball into left field for a 2-0 LaVille lead.
Culver committed all three of its errors in the first inning.
“Give LaVille credit — they’ve done some nice things since the first time we saw them, and their pitcher pitched a good game,” Elliott said. “We beat LaVille 1-0 earlier this year, and then we beat New Prairie, and thought we’d turned a corner. Now in the last three games, we’re back to where we started. A lot of that has to do with the competition we’re playing, but we’re also making too many mental mistakes.
“We’ve got to be ready mentally when we get off the bus,” he continued. “We’re going to keep plugging away. We don’t have any seniors. We’re going to stay positive, but still point out when they make mental mistakes.”
In the second, Nick Ponto drew a leadoff walk, swiped one of the aggressive Lancers’ four stolen bases and crossed home on Chase Heims’ triple over the right fielder’s head. Dylan Heims followed with an RBI single up the middle through a drawn-in Culver infield. Dylan Heims scored on Andrew McGee’s double to center field that sent Culver reaching into its bullpen.
“For me, that’s the way I like to play baseball,” Baker said of his team’s perpetual motion on the basepaths. “I like to be aggressive and make the other team make mistakes.
“I’m proud of everyone,” he concluded. “The kids are starting to play real good ball.”
Both teams hit the road Wednesday. LaVille heads to New Prairie, while Culver makes the trek to Jimtown.
• LAVILLE 5,
CULVER COMMUNITY 0
At Lakeville
Culver: 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 2 3
LaVille: 2 3 0 0 0 — 5 8 1
Tony Leyva (L), Zoe Bauer (2) and Alex Lazo; Glenn Halasz (W) and Ryan Kiefer.
2B: Kiefer (LV), Andrew McGee (LV).
3B: Chase Heims (LV).
Records: Culver 2-12 (2-5 NSC), LaVille 5-9 (2-7 NSC).