Take a bow, Andrew Abler.
Abler handed in the longest outing of the entire Northwoods League season Thursday night, getting just an out shy of a complete game as the Leprechauns cruised to a 10-1 victory over Battle Creek.
“I didn’t have my best stuff, but usually that’s when I get weak contact and just ride confidence on the mound and pound the zone,” Abler said. “I did that today and trusted my defense behind me.”
The Harvard product ended up allowing just one run on five hits and one walk alongside six strikeouts during his 8.2 innings of work.
Grant Siegel of Wausau still holds the only complete game of the season. It came Wednesday against Madison, but the game was only seven innings long.
“I haven’t gotten that far [into a game] ever,” Abler said.
His previous high with Royal Oak was 6.2 innings and the longest at Harvard was four.
“Andrew’s loved playing on this team,” said his father Ben Abler. “I’ve never seen him pitch so deep into the game before.”
“He was incredible, man,” said Leprechauns head coach Jonathan Vance. “That’s who Andrew Abler is, right there.”
It looked like Abler was going to finish it. The score was 10-0 Leprechauns in the ninth with a runner on first and two outs, but back-to-back singles plated Battle Creek’s lone run. Vance went to TJ McAllister Jr. for the last out, who got it on one pitch.
“I think [Abler] wanted it more than I wanted it,” Vance said.
“I wanted it very bad,” Abler said.
Vance said he had thought about pulling Abler after the seventh inning, but Abler really wanted the eighth. Once Abler got through that inning in just nine pitches, Vance wanted him to go for the “Maddux,” a rare feat where a pitcher throws a complete game shutout in less than 100 pitches that is named for Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux.
Abler got through six of his eight complete innings of work in ten pitches or less and five where he only faced three batters.
Vance said a big stat his staff tracks is how often pitchers get an out while throwing four pitches or less to a batter. Abler did it 22 times on Thursday.
One of the best pitching performances for any team in the NWL this year came at a good time for Royal Oak. The victory snaps a four-game skid, which was the longest for the team on the year.
Abler’s day overshadowed an offense that put up ten runs for the first time since July 4.
After a quiet first three innings, the bats exploded for five runs in the fourth to turn a scoreless tie into a commanding Leprechaun lead.
Royal Oak ended up scoring in the next three frames as well. The Leprechauns pushed three runs across against NWL All-Star Adrian Rubio. He entered the day with no earned runs against Royal Oak in seven innings, but the Leprechauns got five hits off in his three innings of work.
Double digits was reached in the seventh after two runs scored on two hits and three walks, spoiling Charlie Berryman’s Battle Jack debut.
Every Leprechaun reached base, eight got a hit and six came around to score at some point. Brayden Dowd earned his first three-hit game this summer and Ryan Tyranski and Tony Hatzigeorgiou each had multi-hit games with two RBIs. Collin Overholt had a season-high three RBIs after a two scored on a single in the fourth and by drawing a bases-loaded walk in the seventh.
“I think we’ve been doing a decent job offensively,” Vance said. “Just stuff not really going our way, and then today we saw the flip side of that. A couple soft hit balls that fell, a couple seeing-eye singles through the infield, and then taking advantage when they got the free passes.”
Royal Oak ended with eleven total hits, but were handed seven walks and a hit by pitch as well.
The Leprechauns will look to build off of Thursday’s result, with another game against Battle Creek set for Friday at 6:35 p.m. It will be the last chance to see Royal Oak play at home until July 28, as the team will play five straight road games after that and the three-day All-Star Break.
