Ben Kleber has seen his teams win games a variety of ways during his 12 years as a head and assistant baseball coach.
Thursday night Kleber saw his Trinity Lutheran Cougars win a different way than any of the previous games he had coached.
“I’ve never won on a walk-off balk before. That’s a first for me,” he said.
With one out in the bottom of the eighth inning, Lawson Woods was safe at first base on a throwing error by the Greenwood Christian third baseman.
Woods was awarded second base on a balk call. Jack Marksberry was safe at first when the third baseman failed to come up with his ground ball.
The base umpire called another balk on the pitcher and Woods scored the only run of the game for the 1-0 victory.
“They had already warned him once,” Kleber said. “They called the balk and then they showed him what he was doing. As a pitcher, you’ve really got to make sure you’re coming set there.”
Both teams had opportunities to score throughout the game. Greenwood left two runners on base in the second inning, a runner on second in the fifth and a runner on third in the sixth, and stranded 7 runners for the game.
Woods threw a 3-hit shutout while striking out 12 and walking 3 to pick up the win.
He said this is the first time he has ever shut out a team for eight innings.
“I was just locating my fastball really well. Early in the game I could put my changeup wherever I wanted it just to keep them off-balance. Around the fourth inning my curveball started to work and from then on I felt automatic on the mound.”
Woods said this game and the Rising Sun game were his two best as far as locating his pitches.
“It’s a great feeling (to get the shutout), especially one of my last times playing on this field,” Woods said.
Kleber said, “Lawson did a heck of a job. That’s what we’re looking for. I challenged him a little bit before the game and told him I wanted to see the Lawson from two years ago. That Lawson was a bulldog and he came out today and he pitched like that.
“That’s what we’re going to need because in sectionals you’ve got to have more than one arm to get through it. With the way Jack is throwing and the way Lawson threw today I like our chances against anybody but we’ve got to be able to play defense and we’ve got to be able to hit the ball.”
Five Trinity batters combined for 7 hits with Woods and Marksberry each getting 2 hits.
Kleber said, “I got a little too aggressive in the first inning with the steal call, and then trying to (have Marksberry) try to get to third on the triple call. I probably should have held them up a little bit. We wanted to be aggressive on the bases.
“That’s what we’re looking for. When it comes to that, that is the same as Salem (Tuesday) night. The top three are getting most of our hits. We’ve got to have somebody else step up. We’re trying to move the line up around, give some guys some shots.
“Somebody has to step up. We’ve got a week-and-a-half left (before sectional) and it’s do or die.”
Trinity batters struck out 11 times and did not receive any walks.
“Their pitchers kept us off-balance today,” Kleber said. “We’ve got to have better approaches. We looked at a lot of fastballs. We knew how the umpire was calling the game, and we still looked at them.”
“You’ve got to be able to adjust in-game, and we didn’t do a very good job of that today.”
Trinity (12-10) will host New Washington for its final home game at 11 a.m. Saturday.
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Greenwood Christian; 000;000;00;-0;3;4
Trinity Lutheran;000;000;01;-1;7;1
Trinity hits: Lawson Woods 2, Jack Marksberry 2, Andrew Bell, Sage Broughton, Evan Hunt; 2B: Marksberry; run: Woods.
Trinity pitching: Woods 8 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 11 K, 3 W
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