MONROE - Coach Dustin Huffman said he thinks is a strong possibility his Monroe baseball team could face Beloit Turner in the Division 2 regional tournament.
If that's the case, Ryan Erickson certainly made a strong argument Monday for getting the starting nod in that game.
The junior delivered a strong nine-inning performance, but the Cheesemakers mustered just six hits and lost 4-3 in 10 innings to the Trojans in non-conference play.
The defeat is the 13th straight for Monroe (2-16, 1-9), but it featured one of the best pitching starts and cleanest defensive efforts of the season.
"When your pitcher goes out and only walks one kid in nine innings and the defense backs him up (with no errors), you can compete in a lot of games," Huffman said.
Erickson scattered 11 hits and allowed three earned runs with one walk and three strikeouts.
"He was very efficient. He only threw 108 pitches," Huffman said. "He had three pitches working well. He probably the only pitcher this year who has been able to throw a changeup for a strike. He was accurate enough with his offspeed pitches that batters had to respect them and he was able to get some easy outs because of that.
"Too bad we couldn't come up with a big hit to get him a "W' because he definitely deserved it."
Beloit Turner pushed the winning run across in the 10th against Monroe junior Kevin Klopfenstein on a Clayton Stenulson double and a J.C. Hughes single up the middle.
Junior Mitch Riese went 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI and junior Trent Wyssbrod was 2-for-4 with an RBI for Monroe. Senior Austin Burandt had an RBI single and just missed setting up the Cheesemakers in the bottom of the 10th.
"Burandt hit a ball to the left-center field gap almost to the warning track and the left fielder made a real nice catch. If he doesn't, Austin is probably standing on third," Huffman said. "It's probably one of the harder hit balls Austin's had all year and unfortunately he wasn't rewarded."
If that's the case, Ryan Erickson certainly made a strong argument Monday for getting the starting nod in that game.
The junior delivered a strong nine-inning performance, but the Cheesemakers mustered just six hits and lost 4-3 in 10 innings to the Trojans in non-conference play.
The defeat is the 13th straight for Monroe (2-16, 1-9), but it featured one of the best pitching starts and cleanest defensive efforts of the season.
"When your pitcher goes out and only walks one kid in nine innings and the defense backs him up (with no errors), you can compete in a lot of games," Huffman said.
Erickson scattered 11 hits and allowed three earned runs with one walk and three strikeouts.
"He was very efficient. He only threw 108 pitches," Huffman said. "He had three pitches working well. He probably the only pitcher this year who has been able to throw a changeup for a strike. He was accurate enough with his offspeed pitches that batters had to respect them and he was able to get some easy outs because of that.
"Too bad we couldn't come up with a big hit to get him a "W' because he definitely deserved it."
Beloit Turner pushed the winning run across in the 10th against Monroe junior Kevin Klopfenstein on a Clayton Stenulson double and a J.C. Hughes single up the middle.
Junior Mitch Riese went 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI and junior Trent Wyssbrod was 2-for-4 with an RBI for Monroe. Senior Austin Burandt had an RBI single and just missed setting up the Cheesemakers in the bottom of the 10th.
"Burandt hit a ball to the left-center field gap almost to the warning track and the left fielder made a real nice catch. If he doesn't, Austin is probably standing on third," Huffman said. "It's probably one of the harder hit balls Austin's had all year and unfortunately he wasn't rewarded."
