SMYRNA — After suffering its first district losses of the season last week at the hands of Riverdale, Siegel paid it forward by dealing the Stewarts Creek Red Hawks their first and second district losses of the season.
The Stars won 5-2 at home Tuesday and 2-0 Wednesday night at Stewarts Creek.
“We knew we needed to win these two to get back in the mix of things,” Siegel winning pitcher Jack Nedrow said after Wednesday’s victory. “We were fighting for the one-seed again and we were motivated after being swept by Riverdale last week to come out and take two games, and we did what we needed to do.”
The tale of the tape from Thursday’s matchup was short and sweet. Nedrow and the Red Hawks’ Austin Wooten personified the rivalry between these two teams in an epic pitcher’s duel. In complete-game efforts for both pitchers, each retired six of the last seven batters they faced.
In his win Nedrow struck out nine, with just four hits and a walk allowed.
“My sophomore year I got shelled by them (Stewarts Creek),” Nedrow recalled. “So it felt good to come out here and redeem myself a little.”
In the loss Wooten had an almost identical stat line, yielding three hits and three walks to go with seven strikeouts. After facing six batters in the first inning, Wooten only faced three above the minimum for the remaining six innings.
“It’s easy to throw a lot of strikes when you have a great defense behind you,” Wooten said. “You just let them (Siegel) put the ball in play and trust your guys are going to make the plays.
“It is definitely a confidence booster to have a lead, but you have to have confidence they (your teammates) will bring you back in the game. Even when they don’t you just have to look toward the next day.”
The difference in the game was the first inning, when despite only one hit and a hit batsman, the Stars were able to move base runners on errors and plate the game’s only runs. Siegel’s Dylan Taylor had the only RBI in the game.
Having a two-run lead before ever taking the mound was “huge” in such an intense bout between pitchers, according to Nedrow.
“I was feeling pretty good today and knew if I threw strikes my defense would have my back and we could scratch enough runs for a win,” Nedrow said. “Going into that first inning was awesome having two runs at my back already.”
With the new district scheduling and the split into two divisions the teams are now entering the inter-divisional play where they will play three-game series, whereas in the first half all the matchups with cross-divisional teams have been just two games.
Siegel enters the second half with a one-game lead over Oakland, and as a result of the sweep, the Red Hawks were knocked out of first and are one game back of Riverdale.
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