MONTICELLO — The Monticello-Albany ball club has struggled so far this season, but continued work on improvements is beginning to pay off.

With the 2020 season canceled, just a handful of players return to the program from the 2019 season, and bad habits at the plate — like swinging at eye-high pitches and letting fastballs at the knees go for strikes — have led to some offensive woes. But the co-op played well May 21 against Black Hawk, and while the May 24 game against Argyle was one-sided on the scoreboard, the Ponies weren’t without some fight.

“The biggest thing I’ve seen from these kids is that they are not afraid to compete. They are getting out there and getting after it, which is important,” head coach Richard Wachholz said after a 13-3 loss to Argyle May 24. “On the same token, they are very green and there is a lot of baseball they need to learn about, and that’s probably the biggest thing we are struggling with right now.”

Monticello starting pitcher Tyler Anderson kept the Orioles in check for the first two innings and allowed a single run in the third. Argyle’s bats came alive in the fourth — as did the defensive errors. Combined with aggressive baserunning, Argyle scratched four runs and three runs in the fourth and fifth innings to take a commanding 8-0 lead. 

“It was kind of different from what we’ve done all season,” said Argyle head coach Jeff Solberg. “We did start slow with our bats, but we got better as the game went on. We tried to stay on them and keep swinging the bats. We were hitting weak ground balls early and weren’t getting many hits — but once we got a few hits and scored a few runs we just sort of took off.”

Argyle scored a ninth run in the sixth, and Rob Schroeder allowed four unearned runs to the Orioles in the seventh, as Monticello-Albany fell behind 13-0. Just 3 of the 13 runs were earned.

In the bottom of the seventh against Argyle reliever Max Godfrey, Monticello-Albany started to put together some quality at-bats and barreled up a few pitches. The Ponies collected five of their six hits in the inning and scored three runs, putting a little bit of heat on the Argyle defense.

“We hit the ball hard, and that’s our one area we are still trying to figure some things out. Our approach, we’re still learning that at the plate. We’re chasing the ball high in the zone and we’re letting good pitches go for strikes. We have got to get used to going after that first good pitch in the zone. Those are the balls that we have to attack — and we did that in the seventh inning and hit some balls really hard,” Wachholz said.

The snippet of a rally could pay huge dividends to the program, which is still figuring out where each player fits in the lineup.

“I appreciate the competitiveness that they have shown, and I think the last inning was an example of it. We didn’t just tuck our tail and get three quick outs, we got three runs and built some momentum that we hope can carry over,” Wachholz said. 

Likewise, Argyle returned just two letterwinners this year — Ritschard and Johnson.

“They have been big for us — just showing the guys how to do everything. Especially just being positive. It’s been a rough start for us and it’s been hard to stay positive, but I think they have done a good job,” Solberg said. “We’ve got seven kids that had never played a varsity game in their lives, so we knew it would be slow going. They are learning and getting better. The biggest thing is they are learning baseball. It’s a hard sport to mentally prepare for and understand, and I think they are coming around.” 

Anderson, Schroeder and Jacob Letcher all doubled for Monticello-Argyle. Jayden Johnson doubled for one of his two hits for Argyle. Alex Gilbertson had five hits and three RBIs, while Clay Ritschard had four hits, two RBIs and three runs. Thatcher Ganshert also had wo hits for Argyle. 

Ritschard and Johnson combined to throw five scoreless innings for Argyle, allowing one hit and three walks with 10 strikeouts. 

“Our pitchers didn’t walk as many guys as they have been, and that’s something that we’ve been working on. You’ve got to throw strikes in high school baseball, and I thought our pitchers did a lot better job of that tonight,” Solberg said. Argyle’s pitching staff hurled 109 pitches in the game, 69 of which were strikes (63.3%).

Wachholz has been preaching throwing strikes as well. Anderson walked just two batters on 99 pitches, while Schroeder had zero walks in his 22-pitch inning. The two peppered the zone all night, throwing 89 strikes in 121 pitches (73.5%), though it did lead to a lot balls put in play.

“Our last three or four games, our pitchers have started to do a better job of challenging contact and throwing the ball in the strike zone, making the hitters put the ball in play,” Wachholz said. “Early on, our first four or five games, our pitchers were averaging 40 or 50 pitches an inning. That’s not going to get it done in high school baseball. But these last three games, we’ve been in the 15-25 range. I’d prefer that we are in the 15 and below range, but the improvement the pitchers have shown in challenging the strike zone has been fantastic and it’s helped us.”