You are going to give up runs but you can’t win if you don’t score anyways. They put two great swings on him and that is going to happen.
“That is says a lot where we are at as a program with our arms and Taylor did a great job of minimizing. “We are blessed with three really good arms and Renner and (Shane) Halker were all league last year and one of them was all district and either of them was my starter tonight,” Sautter said. Not to be overlooked was the effective pitching of Bulldog starter Taylor Schroeder who tossed six solid inning by yielding four hits, giving up three runs, while striking out three and walking two.īulldog Brandon Renner came in to pick up the save and gave up two hits, one run as he struck out one. I have the confidence in the guys that I bring in and they didn’t hit the ball all that hard in the sixth inning but they did it enough to win and we threw it around a little bit and that is what happens.” “We knew then he probably wasn’t going to be able to finish and it is early and its cold and we need him to be go towards the end of the year. “His (Niese) game was determined pretty much in that first inning when he threw 32 or 33 pitches,” Pester said. Prior to the big Columbus Grove inning, Niese had battled the Bulldog bats and was effective with 11 strikeouts in five innings of work with four walks and scattering four hits.īut despite not breaking through against Niese, the Bulldogs had worked the Wildcat lefty enough to have him sit for the sixth. “We did not make the plays defensively and I give them credit for doing what they had to do to win the game.” “They did what they had to do to put the ball in play,” Miller City head coach Dusty Pester said. Two of those hits were infield singles and Renner’s hit was a blooper to right that drove in two. In the go-ahead inning for Columbus Grove, the Bulldogs got a one-out double from Maddox Halker and then singles from Brock Hoffman, Luke Otto and Brandon Renner to collect the four runs. I thought we did a great job working the counts to get in that position.” You could see the whole demeanor in the whole dugout change when Caleb wasn’t on the mound. “Our work through the first five innings got us a new arm and we were able to capitalize once Caleb was out of the game because Caleb is good. “We didn’t come up with the timely hit in the first five innings but kept scratching and clawing like I preach to our kids and eventually you are going to come through. “I thought we did a great job of putting pressure on Caleb on the mound and on their defense and they had to go to someone else because we put pressure on him and put baserunners on,” Columbus Grove head coach Brayden Sautter said. Miller City slips to 3-1 in league play and 7-2 for the season. With the win, Columbus Grove improves to 3-0 in the PCL and 6-2 overall. COLUMBUS GROVE – For five innings, Columbus Grove had trouble with Miller City pitcher Caleb Niese as the Wildcat southpaw stymied the Bulldog bats and the Bulldogs found themselves down 3-1 going into the sixth inning.īut after Niese was lifted due to his pitch count, Columbus Grove rallied with four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and then held on in the seventh to secure a 5-4 comeback win against Miller City in a Putnam County League contest Tuesday.