By Dan Messerschmidt

CCN Sports Director

ATTICA — In baseball, hitting is an important side dish, but pitching is the main course.

So far this year, Seneca East coach Rick Bowerman has been feasting.

For the second straight game, Tigers’ pitchers threw complete-game one-hitters at Bucyrus. Bo Smith struck out seven and walked four, while surrendering just an infield hit to Ben Seibert in the first inning, as Seneca East downed the Redmen, 6-1, in a Northern 10 Athletic Conference game at Lamoreaux Field.

“Our pitchers were, both Friday and Monday, outstanding,” Bowerman said. “We pounded the zone. Our defense was solid but not spectacular. If we get pitching like that all year, we’ll be fine.”

Bucyrus coach Sean Maudsley felt his hitters’ approaches at the plate played to Smith’s strengths.

“We let better pitches go by than the ones we swung at,” Maudsley said. “Early in the count, (Smith) was throwing strikes. He threw probably 70-80 percent strikes. We let the first pitches go by and they happened to be the best pitches (for us).”

Smith got all the runs he needed in the first as Seneca East (5-2, 3-0 N10) pushed across two unearned runs off Redmen starter Noah Parker. Kainon Ruffing led off with a walk, went to second on a wild pitch, stole third and scored on a two-out error.

Ricky Lacy, who had been safe on the error, moved to second on a single by Hunter Martin, went to third on a walk to Tyler Turek and scored on a wild pitch.

“We know our pitchers are going to put the ball in play,” Maudsley said. “They’re probably not going to strike out a lot of people out. They’re going to mix it up well, make the defense work and we’ve got to make the plays when they do that.”

Bucyrus (1-3, 0-2 N10) did load the bases in the second on a pair of walks and an error with one out. But Smith induced a 1-4-3 double play to escape damage.

“We took advantage of their miscues,” Bowerman said. “And we’re trying to be aggressive on the base paths. Kainon Ruffing does a great job on the base paths. If the balls in the dirt, he’s moving up a base.”

The Redmen got a runner to third in the third inning on a walk a sacrifice and an error. But Smith got a ground out to end that threat.

From there, the Tigers’ senior righthander faced the minimum in three of the last four innings. In the sixth, Bucyrus touched him for an unearned run.

Seibert was hit by a pitch and Parker walked. Seibert was forced at third on a fielder’s choice and Trevor Ley popped out to third in shallow left. However, the throw back to the infield was off line and went to the Redmen dugout, allowing Parker to score from second base.

“We had, once again, four unearned runs tonight,” Maudsley said. “But you’re not going to win anything if you score one run in two games.”

Two hits, a walk and a hit batter produced the second Seneca East run in the second inning, with Smith driving in Chase Foos with a single.

The Tigers parlayed one hit, two hit batters, two Redmen errors and a walk into two more unearned runs in the fourth and tacked on an insurance run in the on a single, a stolen base, a fielder’s choice and an RBI single by Lacy.

Only two earned runs concerned Bowerman.

“We had poor at-bats with the bases loaded and runners on second and third,” Bowerman said. “We got a little anxious, popping the ball up and hitting weak ground balls. That’s one thing we need to improve on. But if we can hold the other team to one run or shut them out and we score two, we’re going to get wins.”

Parker pitched well enough to win on many days. The south paw struck out only one and walked three. He gave up 5 runs — only one was earned — on four hits. Seibert fanned one and walked two in relief, giving up one run on two hits.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Bo,” Maudsley said. “He used three pitches tonight that he was controlling pretty well. He threw the fastball well, spotted it, but his changeup was outstanding. It had us beating it into the ground.”

Smith had two hits and two RBIs to pace the Tigers’ offense as well. Lacy, Martin, Foos and Brandon Best each singled. Lacy and Turek drove in runs.

“I don’t know whether we’re guessing or picking what pitches we want to hit,” Maudsley said. “But if that pitch is in our zone, we’ve got to be able to hit it and hit it hard. We let our pitches go by and then it became his pitches.”

Twitter: @TF_Schmidt

208-530-3035

Bucyrus         000 001 0    1   1   3

Seneca East  210 210 X    6   6   3

WP: Bo Smith (7 SO, 4 W)

LP: Noah Parker (1 SO, 3 W)

HR: None

Triples: None

Doubles: None

Multiple hits: (SE) Bo Smith.

Records: Seneca East 5-2 (3-0 N10); Bucyrus 1-3 (0-2 N10).

Next: Bucyrus at Mount Gilead, Tuesday; Seneca East at Colonel Crawford, Wednesday.