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By: Pat Mullen
Batle Creek, Mich.- Luke Heller (Cornerstone) took the mound verse his old team Monday night and pitched a gem at C.O. Brown.
The Bombers won the game 3-2 as Green Bay's win streak was snapped at five. Heller was on the Bullfrogs as a "temp" earlier this year and then picked up by Battle Creek at the beginning of July.
"Overall, Luke Heller threw the ball great," head skipper Rob Robinson said. "He was just a bulldog out there the whole game."
Luke was pleased with his performance as well, saying "I think I did a good job of adjusting to being in the starting role. I just wanted to throw strikes and get ahead of guys and I think I did that pretty well."
The offense got out to a hot start, putting three runs up in the first inning. Battle Creek strung together four straight hits in the inning, highlighted by a double off the bat of Henri Lartigue (Ole Miss).
"I was just making sure I went up there thinking middle away because I knew this guy wasn't going to overpower us," Lartigue was quoted. "Just stay relatively calm and go out there and as a team, just do our thing."
The Bombers offense was shut down after the early innings though as the Bullfrog starter, Corey Fischer, threw a complete game in the loss.
It did get interesting during the 8th as Luke Heller was pulled when a seeing-eye ground ball snuck trough the left side. Green Bay plated two runs on that, but were then shut down by Matt Rhodes (Hardin-Simmons).
Rhodes stayed in for the ninth inning and went 1-2-3, getting his first save of the season.
"Overall, Heller shoved it and Rhodes came in and shut it down," Pitching Coach Bill Murphy said. He was very pleased with both of their performances.
It was a great day at C.O. Brown overall as the Bombers got the win, and Luke Heller got some revenge on his old teammates.
"It was just really fun to be able to pitch against my friends. There is no bad blood between us, but it was nice to go out there and do well against them," Heller added with a big grin on his face.
Hopefully those smiles can continue tomorrow for Battle Creek as the Bombers look to sweep the Bullfrogs. First pitch is at 7:05 ET.
Game Notes:
(WP) Luke Heller (1-2, season ERA 3.04): 7.1 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
(SAVE, 1) Matt Rhodes: 1.2 IP, 1 K
Henri Lartigue: 2-4, 2B (7), 1 R, 1 RBI