Peetz sweeps opening twinbill

PEETZ, Colo. – Though it may have seemed like a long winter, the opening-day pitchers for Peetz High School didn't seem to have much rust to shake off.

As the Bulldogs' nine came out of hibernation Thursday with a doubleheader sweep of Prairie by scores of 9-2 and 6-5 in the season opener for both teams, the Peetz hurlers fanned 32 batters in 14 innings.

With a fierce wind that blew consistently at more than 20 mph, Bradey Holtz took to the hill in game one and erased 18 Mustangs' hitters via the strikeout in a complete-game victory. Garrett Roelle came on in the nightcap to add a dozen more Ks over six innings. As an encore, Cody Wilson pitched a perfect seventh with two more punch outs.

"For the team not having a lot of practice and this being our first games of the year, I'm very pleased," said the Bulldogs head coach Darrin Fehringer. "Garrett is normally our number three, but Cody (Wilson) wasn't feeling his best so we gave the ball to Garrett and he came through with a nice performance."

While the 'Dogs ended up with a pair of wins, they had to fight from behind in both contests. Prairie took a quick 2-0 advantage in the opener and was up 3-0 in the second. Peetz did not secure the second win until the bottom of the seventh when the 6-7-8 hitters teamed up to produce the game winner.

Leading off the bottom of the seventh in a 5-5 tie, freshman Logan Sircy smacked a sharp single to center. Sircy advanced to second when another freshman, Tre Fehringer, layed down a well-executed sacrifice bunt toward the pitchers mound. After Sircy swiped third, yet another freshman Alex Curlee, stepped to the plate. When Curlee cued one to the right side, Sircy dashed home with the winning run in a cloud of dust.

"Our young guys really came through when we needed them today," Fehringer said.

Ater falling behind 3-0 after one inning, the Bulldogs picked up three in the third with a one-out rally. Holtz scored the first after a walk, a steal of second and then made it home after an error and wild pitch.

Wilson scored the second run and Garrett Roelle the equalizer on a wild pitch after getting knocked to third by brother Brian. The same trio later had a hand in tying the game at 5-5 when the Bulldogs put together a two-out rally in the sixth. Three consecutive singles by Wilson, Garrett Roelle and Brian Roelle rescued Peetz from a 5-4 deficit.

Though Garrett Roelle yielded five runs on the afternoon, just one was earned. He surrendered three runs in the opening frame but minimized the damage by fanning the final two hitters of the inning. In the sixth, he stranded a runner at third with a two-out strikeout.

"Except for one curveball, which I was lucky to have the guy swing at, I was throwing all fastballs," Roelle said. "I just told myself to throw the ball over the plate. If they swing and miss that's great, but I was confident in the defense behind me."

Holtz was the master of game one – which oddly enough was the only game to count in the league standings. Throughout the season, only the first game of double headers between Class 1A District 4 opponents will count in league standings. The nightcaps will be counted only in the overall standings – because of the limited number of teams in the league.

Though Holtz was a little unsteady early in game one as he yielded a pair of runs (one earned) on two walks in the first, he settled down to pitch scoreless, two-hit baseball the rest of the way. The Mustangs didn't pick up their first hit until the sixth and had another in the seventh.

"I threw nothing but fastballs because they kept swinging and missing, so I just stuck with what worked," Holtz said. "I need to work on finding the strike zone better earlier in games. I think it's just a matter of my warm-up routine."

Offensively, the Bulldogs were helped by RBI hits from many different sources. Jordan Nelson singled home the tying run in the first inning and Wilson scored the go-ahead tally in the third on a hit by Brian Roelle after being beaned in the head. Wilson, Curlee, Sircy and Fehringer later had RBI singles for Peetz.

The Bulldogs next take on Merino at home on Monday at 3 p.m.

LINESCORES

Game one

Peetz 9, Prairie 2

Prairie 200 000 0 – 2 2 6

Peetz 205 002 x – 9 8 1

Mychael Ortiz and Trent Holzworth. Bradey Holtz and Brian Roelle. No extra-base hits.

Game two

Peetz 6, Prairie 5

Prairie 301 001 0 – 5 6 2

Peetz 003 101 1 – 6 11 2

T.J. Hubbard and Trent Holzworth. Garrett Roelle, Cody Wilson (7) and Brian Roelle. 2B – Garrett Seltzer (PR), Will Keelan (PR), Austin Littlefield (PR).