FARGO – After Friday’s 2-0 win over West Des Moines on Friday to stave off elimination in the American Legion Division I Central Plains Regional baseball tournament, Omaha Westside had given up one run in 18 innings, striking out 22 and walking one.
And the Warriors are 1-1.
Jake Meyers struck out 14 batters and walked one in nine innings Thursday, taking the 1-0 loss. Friday, he wasn’t about to let the same thing happen to teammate Matt Waldron, knocking in Omaha Westside’s first run of the tournament with a one-out single in the bottom of the third.
The curse was broken.
“We kind of looked at each other and said, ‘All right, it’s time to go. We broke the curse,’” Meyers said. “It was awesome to get the first run through. It’s frustrating that we didn’t get the bats going in Game 1, but it is what it is and you have to forget about it. We scratched through this one, and hopefully we’ll be playing better baseball now.”
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The offense for Omaha Westside (52-5) didn’t exactly explode after Meyers eliminated the curse on the bats, adding one more run on a two-out bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the fifth, but it was more than enough for Waldron.
Waldron went all nine innings, giving up five hits and no walks, while striking out eight.
“Our hitting didn’t show up yesterday,” Waldron said. “It made me bear down, throw strikes and focus on every pitch because our season was on the line. My fastball and my changeup were working. Our pitchers are well-rested, so we got a chance.”
West Des Moines pitcher Matt Whipple made Waldron battle. He gave up just one earned run through six innings, walking Drew Fitzmorris with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth to make it 2-0.
Runners only reached second base three times in the game against Waldron. In the bottom of the first, West Des Moines (18-4) got a leadoff single from Luke DeVenney, who stole second. Waldron got the next three hitters. In the top of the seventh, Waldron hit a batter and gave up a single to open the inning, but Waldron retired the next batter and got Brandon Mauro to roll into a double play.
Waldron retired six out of the final seven batters to close it.
“We’ve got good pitching, which always helps.” Omaha Westside coach Bob Greco said. “We’ve been pretty tough mentally all year. You just win any way you can.”
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Whipple, Nelson (7) and Hunter, Snuttjer (6). Waldron and Nielsen. W–Waldron (10-1). L–Whipple (4-1).
