Dan Truttschel Sports Correspondent
Strong pitching has kept the Wilmot baseball team in many of its games to this point in 2012.
And that didn’t change last week.
Two days after Burlington held the Panthers to two runs, Wilmot returned the favor Thursday afternoon with a 3-2 Southern Lakes Conference win.
The split with Burlington, which defeated Wilmot 4-2 last Tuesday, left the Panthers at 5-1 in the SLC and 7-4 overall heading into action this week.
Wilmot broke a 2-2 tie with the game’s final run in the third inning when Evan Ketterhagen, who had singled, scored on an RBI single by Corey Crowder.
And that was all the offense Wilmot would need, as Chaz Schmidt shut down the Demons with a little seventh-inning help by Nick Heniff.
Schmidt pitched 6-1/3 innings, and allowed three walks and struck out six.
“I can’t say enough about the way our guys are pitching right now,” Wilmot coach Josh Pye said. “(After the first inning Schmidt) settled in and challenged Burlington all night by getting ahead and pounding the strike zone.”
Burlington tried to rally in the fifth and sixth innings, but each time, Schmidt closed the door with timely strikeouts.
Heniff earned the save, as he struck out two batters and induced a pop up to seal the win.
“Nick has really settled in and took over the closer role for us,” Pye said. “Things got a little interesting in the last inning, but Nick never flinched and kept his focus.”
After Burlington jumped out to a 2-0 first-inning lead, the Panthers answered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the opening frame.
Crowder doubled to drive in Ketterhagen, who singled, followed by a Schmidt single that drove in Garrett Bogucki.
Bogucki, Crowder and Schmidt each had two hits to lead the offense for Wilmot.
“I thought we had better approaches at the plate than we have had over the last couple of games,” Pye said.
Wilmot was back in action Tuesday afternoon at Westosha Central. The Panthers hosted the Falcons Thursday, May 3.
Wilmot tied the game at 2-2 with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth inning, but Burlington took the lead with a single tally in the bottom of the frame en route to a 4-2 win last Tuesday afternoon.
The Panthers managed just five hits, one each by Kenny Eterno, Bogucki, Crowder, Ketterhagen and Cal Rohrman.
“We had runners in scoring position the first couple of innings and could not get a hit to drive them in,” Pye said. “We had opportunities early and Burlington had them late. Obviously, they were able to capitalize on their opportunities.”
Rohrman took the loss, as he pitched 4-1/3 innings, and allowed six hits, one earned run, five walks and struck out three. Heniff worked the final 1-1/3 innings, allowed one walk and struck out four.
“Cal threw well and had good command on the lower half of the strike zone,” Pye said.