Alan Spencer throws 2-hit shutout as St. Bede moves to 10-0 with win over WFC

PERU – St. Bede senior Alan Spencer was jogging laps with a yellow hard hat on his head Thursday.

“The hard hat means we’re hard at work,” Spencer said. “It started last year. I think it’s a fun way to really get people pumped up to try and win this and the bat [given to the hitter of the game].”

Spencer earned the hard hat by throwing a two-hit shutout to lead the Bruins to a 10-0, six-inning victory over Woodland/Flanagan-Cornell in a Tri-County Conference game.

“He’s been better, but he was pretty sharp,” St. Bede coach Bill Booker said. “We had a week off [before Tuesday’s game], so we’re getting our pitchers back in line for conference. They’ve had to throw bullpens and get ready to go that way.

“He got ahead of a lot of hitters. He located his fastball pretty well. As the game went on, he got a little bit of off-speed across the plate. He set a good pace by getting ahead of hitters.”

Spencer set the tone early by striking out the first four batters of the game. He finished with 10 strikeouts while walking one batter and hitting one.

“I just moved around the zone,” Spencer said. “They were a little late here and there, so I just kept pounding the zone, especially outside corner because I know hitters tend to not want to go to the outside corner most times.”

Spencer and the rest of the pitching staff have played a major role in St. Bede starting the season 10-0, including 4-0 in conference play.

The Bruins are allowing 2.1 runs per game with three shutouts and have allowed more than three runs just twice.

“We’ve played good baseball,” Booker said. “We’ve had some times where we had to come back and make plays and get hits late in the game to keep an inning going or win a game at the end. Defensively, for about the first six games we played well, then we took a couple games off but since then we’ve played better defensively. We’ve gotten good pitching through the first 10 games, so that’s the key. I’m real proud of the way our pitchers are getting after it on the mound.”

The offense backed up Spencer on Thursday after a slow start.

St. Bede did not have a hit through two innings but scored three in the third when Gus Burr cleared the bases with a double to left field.

The Bruins scored in every inning from the third.

AJ Hermes had an RBI single in the fourth, drove in a run with a fielder’s choice in the fifth and ended the game with a two-run single in the sixth.

Aidan Mullane hit a two-run single to right-center field in the fifth and Burr hit an RBI double in the sixth.

Burr and Hermes shared the bat for hitter of the game as Burr was 3 for 4 with two doubles, four RBIs and two runs, and Hermes was 2 for 4 with four RBIs.

“We started slow,” Booker said. “I didn’t think we had good plate approaches. I didn’t think we barreled up many balls. Give them credit, they kept us off balance. It was a good game through about four innings when we started hitting the ball a little bit. I thought we started playing a little bit more up to our capabilities, putting the ball in play better, running the bases a little bit better.”

Connor Dodge and Sam Schmitz each had a hit for Woodland (1-8, 0-6). Brayden Matsko took the loss, as he allowed four runs on four hits with three strikeouts and three walks in 3⅔ innings.

“I thought we played a lot better than Tuesday [in a 17-2 loss to St. Bede],” Woodland coach Dan Essman said. “I think overall defensively, we played well. Matsko pitched a heck of a game. His command was really good. At the beginning he was hitting his curveballs real well. He was low and inside a lot.

“We just have to somehow get runs across.”